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

After ended as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will relish a match against whichever team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were saying recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. I think many people were hesitant. But for me, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so it will be challenging.

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

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

Albania enjoyed a solid qualifying run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's recognizable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper 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 played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but did have a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

As his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken 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 both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in Group F in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one jersey his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.