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Wales' attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final opponents.

After finished second in their qualification pool thanks to a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on home soil.

They will meet either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will embrace a match against any opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were asking recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be amazing.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"However you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualification run, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss ended the six-match campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and earned a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

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

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted 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 take runner-up spot in their group in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.