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

After ended as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal match on home soil.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will embrace a match against whichever opponent after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"Many people were asking recently, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. I think many people didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong team so it will be challenging.

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

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Wales sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

As his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

The veteran was his team's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, 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 scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.