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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final rivals.

Having finished second in their qualifying pool following a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will embrace a tie against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mindset is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"A lot of supporters were saying last night, 'do we actually want Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that would be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong team so they'll be difficult.

"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

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

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

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

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

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

As his country's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The veteran was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored 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 stunned Hungary to secure second spot in their group in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with Wales, losing three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.