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Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final rivals.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final match on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of supporters were asking last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think many supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

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

"But you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semi-final Rivals Reviewed

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent names, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, though they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on both times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign three points clear of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

As his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having taken just one point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take second spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.