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Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await learning their semi-final and possible final challengers.

Having ended second in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will relish a match against any team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many people were saying recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that would be incredible.

"So it's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so they'll be challenging.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

Albania had a impressive qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-game qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in qualifying, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

The veteran was his team's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second spot in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in three of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.