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Wales' attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and possible final rivals.

Having ended second in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'give us anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many supporters were asking recently, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. I think many people were hesitant. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, 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.

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

Possible Play-off Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

Wales sit 34th in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a solid qualification run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a single goal.

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

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended two points behind of their group 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 ensured the pair drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take second spot in their group in thrilling fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.