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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished second in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, 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 whichever opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many fans were saying last night, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view many supporters were hesitant. But personally, that would be incredible.

"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a capable team so it will be challenging.

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

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The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualifying run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's recognizable names, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

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

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

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time top scorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but still finished 2 points adrift of Group H 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 pair drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's star player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive 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 Irish stunned Hungary to take second spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

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

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past 4 encounters with Wales, losing 3 of those, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.