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Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will welcome a match against any team after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many people were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so it will be challenging.

"However the sense is that we're prepared for anyone right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Reviewed

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a solid qualifying campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

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

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss finished the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a unforgettable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their past 4 encounters with Wales, losing 3 of those, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.