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Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a tie against whichever team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were wondering recently, 'do we really want Ireland because of that derby feel?'. I think many supporters didn't. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so it will be tough.

"But the sense is that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Assessed

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad aiming for a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's resurgence while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.

Ireland are without a win in their last four encounters with the Welsh, losing three of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.