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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final rivals.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever opponent following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were saying recently, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think a number of people didn't. But for me, that would be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a capable team so they'll be challenging.

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

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualifying run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

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

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

The Swiss ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in qualifying, and earned a point more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still finished two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but did have a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

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

Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with the Welsh, losing 3 of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.