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Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for learning their semifinal and potential 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 – Wales will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will relish a tie against any team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of fans were asking last night, 'should we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so it will be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales are placed 34th in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

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

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among 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.

It is worth noting, Albania have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the last 16 on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point additional than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points behind 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 ensured the teams drew in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken only a single 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 Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in dramatic style.

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

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past four meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.