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The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await learning their semifinal and potential final rivals.

Having ended second in their qualifying pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will embrace a match against any team 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 stated.

"A lot of people were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think many people didn't. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so it will be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualifying run, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team aiming for a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a unforgettable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his nation's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's key player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their first 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last four encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of those, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.