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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final opponents.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification group following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal match on home soil.

They will meet either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a match against any team following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were asking recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. I think many people were hesitant. But for me, that would be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good 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 down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, Albania have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-game campaign three points clear of the Kosovans, whose single defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in qualifying, and claimed a points more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

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

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 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 runner-up place in their group in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last four encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.