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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await learning their semi-final and possible final challengers.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against any team following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"Many supporters were asking last night, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so it will be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semifinal Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team 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 more notable names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on both times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

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

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a team aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in qualifying, and claimed a point additional than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but still ended two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.

As his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

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

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