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Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

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 thinks the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever team following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many fans were asking recently, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think many people were hesitant. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be tough.

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

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Assessed

Wales are placed 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 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.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss finished the six-game campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales managed 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 place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

The veteran was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their first 3 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 final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.