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Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

After ended second in their qualifying group following a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a match against any team after their most recent performance 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 commented.

"A lot of fans were wondering last night, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so it will be challenging.

"However the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Reviewed

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualifying campaign, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign three points clear of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a first major tournament appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than Wales managed in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind 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 teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one jersey his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with Wales, losing three of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.