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

After finished as runners-up in their qualification group following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will relish a tie against any opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of fans were wondering last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But for me, that would be incredible.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so it will be challenging.

"However you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Evaluated

Wales sit 34th in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualifying run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

The Kosovan squad feature ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his nation's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take runner-up place in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean broke 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.