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Wales' focus are firmly on the upcoming World Cup play-off draw as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final opponents.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a tie against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be challenging.

"However the sense is that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding 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, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point more than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but still ended 2 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 ensured the teams tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at 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 taken only a single point from their first 3 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 Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his own.

Ireland are without a win in their past 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.