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Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final challengers.

Having ended second in their qualifying group following a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a match against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of people were wondering last night, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view many people didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, of course, they are a capable team so it will be tough.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Reviewed

Wales sit 34th in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of their group 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 Albanian squad's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift 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 pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take second spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 meetings with Wales, losing three of these, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.