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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they await learning their semifinal and potential final rivals.

After finished second in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal match on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will relish a match against whichever opponent after their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of people were asking last night, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so it will be difficult.

"But you just feel that we're prepared for anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

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

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-match campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose one loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still 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 ensured the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a unforgettable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The 39-year-old was his team's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.