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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final opponents.

After ended second in their qualification pool following a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will relish a tie against any team following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were wondering last night, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that could be incredible.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so it will be difficult.

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

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a impressive qualification run, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

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

The Switzerland finished the six-game campaign 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still finished 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 ensured the teams tied in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a unforgettable defeat 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, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in thrilling style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his own.

Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with the Welsh, losing three of these, although James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.