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Wales' focus are firmly on the upcoming World Cup play-off fixture as they await learning their semifinal and possible final rivals.

Having ended second in their qualification group following a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a match against whichever opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"A lot of fans were saying recently, 'should we really want Ireland because of that derby feel?'. In my view many people were hesitant. But for me, that could be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so they'll be challenging.

"However you just feel 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 Semifinal Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualification campaign, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley'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 forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, failing to reach the last 16 on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-game qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet faced the Welsh team.

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

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

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

As his nation's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

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

Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with Wales, defeated in three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.