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Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After ended second in their qualification group following a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will relish a match against any opponent following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of people didn't. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so it will be challenging.

"However the sense is that we're prepared for anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

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The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have never qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with each failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in qualifying, and earned a point more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

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

The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their first 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take second place in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

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