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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished second in their qualifying pool following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.

They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will relish a match against any team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many people were saying recently, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. I think many people were hesitant. But personally, that would be fantastic.

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

"However the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Assessed

Wales are placed 34th in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a solid qualifying campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

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

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but still finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but did have a unforgettable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his nation's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's star player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take runner-up place in Group F in thrilling style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their last 4 encounters with Wales, losing 3 of these, though 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.