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Wales' focus are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were saying last night, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think many people were hesitant. But personally, that would be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so it will be tough.

"However the sense is that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.

Albania had a solid qualification run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, Albania have never qualified for a World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single loss was at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler 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 Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker 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.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of those, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.