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The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final opponents.

After ended second in their qualification group following a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will relish a match against any team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were asking recently, 'do we actually want Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a impressive qualification campaign, with their only losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid campaigns, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-match campaign three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

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

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their first 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in dramatic style.

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

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.