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Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and potential final opponents.

After finished second in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of people were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be tough.

"However the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semifinal Opponents Assessed

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

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

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a points more than Wales achieved 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 spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.