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The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semifinal and possible final rivals.

Having finished second in their qualifying group thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a match against whichever 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 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many supporters were wondering last night, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland because of that derby feel?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be challenging.

"However you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a impressive qualification run, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost only one time in qualifying, and claimed a point additional than Wales managed in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in four matches but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified 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 unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

The veteran was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both 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 take second place in Group F in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one jersey his own.

Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.