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Wales' focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await learning their semifinal and potential final rivals.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on home soil.

They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will embrace a match against whichever team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"Many fans were saying recently, 'should we actually want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Ireland, of course, they are a capable team so it will be tough.

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

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Reviewed

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

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

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in qualifying, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points adrift 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 qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but did have a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.