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Wales' focus are firmly on the upcoming World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and possible final rivals.

After finished second in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many supporters were wondering recently, 'do we really want Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so they'll be challenging.

"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."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualifying run, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a single goal.

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

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on both times.

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

The Switzerland finished the six-game campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh managed in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended 2 points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

The veteran was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, defeated in three of those, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.