WALES captain Ashley Williams knows he must stop Manchester City's Edin Dzeko if Chris Coleman's side are to take a significant step on the road to Euro 2016 qualification.

Dzeko is the standard-bearer of Bosnia-Herzegovina's brand of football and Swansea skipper Williams believes the striker is one of the most underrated players in the Barclays Premier League.

The 28-year-old has scored 70 goals for Manchester City since joining them from German club Wolfsburg in January 2011 but Williams feels Dzeko does not get the credit he deserves.

"He's always a very difficult opponent and a very good player," Williams said ahead of Bosnia's Group B visit to the Cardiff City Stadium on Friday night.

"I've always felt he is one of the top strikers and has never got the credit that he deserves.

"You get a feeling for a player and he's very difficult to play against.

"He's mobile, very quick and scores bags of goals. He's really flying again this season and I think people are noticing it a lot more."

Wales have the chance to build on their opening group victory in Andorra last month, when Gareth Bale scored twice in a nervy 2-1 win, with home games against Bosnia and Cyprus coming in the space of three days.

Bosnia head to Wales on the back of their shock September home defeat to Cyprus, news of which Williams says further lifted Coleman's squad after Bale's brilliance saw them avoid embarrassment in Andorra.

"Yes, the boost was only natural when we heard they hadn't won," Williams said.

"You look at the group before it starts and you think that we need to better them to qualify.

"Bosnia's a team we feel we are competing with directly so it's one of the biggest games of the campaign, especially at home, and we need it to go to plan.

"We won the first game and they lost it, so it's going to be a massive game for us.

"We're playing a difficult Bosnia side but if we win that game it sets up nicely for Cyprus."

Wales have lost key midfield pair Aaron Ramsey and Joe Allen to injury but Bale came unscathed through Real Madrid's 5-0 league win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night and there is plenty of optimism within Welsh ranks.

Coleman's side have risen to 29th in the FIFA rankings - only two places short of Wales' highest-ever position over 20 years ago - and have lost only once in six games during the past 12 months.

"We're going into a camp where there's a lot of expectation and enthusiasm," Williams said.

"It's a big blow to lose important players like Aaron and Joe but we have to deal with it and the encouraging thing is we've got a lot of young boys coming in who are very talented.

"Obviously Gareth is our main man and he can win games on his own, so with him in the team anything's possible.

"When he is with the squad he always shows enthusiasm and you saw in the last game what he can do.

"He's got a good mentality, he's always bang on it and he's got the whole country behind us again.

"You can just feel the atmosphere and the ground change when he gets on the ball and that drives us all on."