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

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will host the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will relish a match against whichever team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were saying recently, 'do we really want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of people didn't. But for me, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be challenging.

"However you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

Albania had a solid qualification run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent names, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time top scorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 matches but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs 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 arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.