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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final rivals.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of fans were wondering recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view many supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualifying run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on both times.

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

The Swiss ended the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in qualifying, and earned a points more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still ended 2 points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a unforgettable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.