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The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After ended as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'give us anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were asking recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people were hesitant. But for me, that would be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so they'll be tough.

"However the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semifinal Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

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

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

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

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with Wales, defeated in three of these, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.