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The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semifinal and possible final rivals.

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

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of fans were asking last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that could be amazing.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be difficult.

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

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a impressive qualifying campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign three points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

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

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

The veteran was his team's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their first three qualifiers, 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 the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in their group in thrilling style.

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

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last four encounters with Wales, defeated in three of these, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.