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Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await learning their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

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

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'should we actually want Ireland because of that derby feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are competitive and Ireland, of course, they are a strong team so they'll be tough.

"However the sense is that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a impressive qualification campaign, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than Wales managed in their eight games, but still 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 teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but did have a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his country's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

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

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.