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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final opponents.

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

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were saying recently, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong 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 Playoff Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualifying campaign, with their only losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers three points clear of the Kosovans, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

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

The veteran was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second spot in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his side's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.