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The team's sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final challengers.

After finished second in their qualification pool following a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against whichever opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were asking last night, 'should we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think many people were hesitant. But for me, that would be fantastic.

"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so it will be tough.

"However you just feel that we'll take anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

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

Albania had a strong qualification run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in qualifying with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on both times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo feature ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales managed in their eight games, but still ended 2 points adrift 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 ensured the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing three of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.