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Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for learning their semi-final and potential final challengers.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualifying pool following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on home soil.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of fans were asking recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so they'll be challenging.

"However the sense is that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualifying campaign, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.

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

They have not yet faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points more than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of their group 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 topped the pool.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.

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

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their first three 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 bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one jersey his own.

Ireland are winless in their past 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.