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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semi-final and possible final opponents.

Having ended second in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a match against any team after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"Many fans were saying last night, 'should we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania enjoyed a impressive qualifying run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

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

Importantly, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and earned a points additional than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind 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 leveler for the Austrians meant the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his nation's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's star player.

The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two 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 runner-up place in Group F in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his side's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.