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Wales' attention are firmly on the upcoming World Cup play-off draw as they await discovering their semifinal and potential final rivals.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal match on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many people were asking recently, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think many supporters were hesitant. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a strong team so they'll be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th 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 maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

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

The Switzerland finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but did have a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

As his nation's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their past 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.