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Wales' attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification group following a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a tie against any opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many fans were wondering last night, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But for me, that would be amazing.

"It's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be tough.

"But the sense is that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a solid qualification run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

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

As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 matches but did have a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past 4 encounters with Wales, losing three of those, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.