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The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were wondering recently, 'do we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that could be incredible.

"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so they'll be challenging.

"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their only defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the last 16 on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-game campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in qualifying, and earned a points more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second place in Group F in thrilling style.

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

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with Wales, defeated in three of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.