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Wales' attention are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semifinal and potential final rivals.

After ended second in their qualification group following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will embrace a match against any opponent after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many fans were saying recently, 'should we really want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that would be amazing.

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

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a impressive qualifying campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than Wales managed in their 8 games, but still ended two points behind of their group 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 meant the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his nation's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive 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 final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with Wales, losing three of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.