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Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final challengers.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against any opponent following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of supporters were saying last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that could be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so it will be challenging.

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

Possible Play-off Semifinal Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in qualifying with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-match campaign three points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still ended 2 points behind 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 equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure second place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.