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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await learning their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualifying group following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.

They will meet either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

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

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"Many supporters were asking recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that could be incredible.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so it will be challenging.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had torrid 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-game qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss was 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 top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in qualifying, and claimed a point more than Wales managed in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

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

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.