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Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await discovering their semifinal and possible final challengers.

Having ended second in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a tie against whichever team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"A lot of fans were asking last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But personally, that would be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so they'll be difficult.

"However you just feel 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 Semifinal Opponents Reviewed

Wales sit 34th in the world rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a strong qualification run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-game qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but still finished two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

The veteran was his squad's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

After secured only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both 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 runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.