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The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final challengers.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a commanding 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal match on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will relish a match against any opponent following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were saying last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are competitive and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so it will be difficult.

"However you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semifinal Opponents Reviewed

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

The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualification run, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

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

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign three points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to take runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.