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Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final rivals.

Having finished second in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a tie against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.

"A lot of people were asking last night, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view many people were hesitant. But personally, that could be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so it will be difficult.

"But you just feel that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Reviewed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualification run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the knockout stages on both times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers three points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a point additional than Wales managed in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but experienced a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in their group in dramatic style.

Key player 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 the Welsh, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.