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The team's attention are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final rivals.

After ended as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against whichever team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"Many supporters were wondering last night, 'do we really want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters didn't. But personally, that would be amazing.

"So it's one of those, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a strong qualification run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in qualifying, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

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

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken just one point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in thrilling style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, losing 3 of these, though James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.