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Wales' sights are squarely on the upcoming World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final opponents.

After ended as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semifinal encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a tie against whichever team after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were asking recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that local feel?'. I think many supporters didn't. But for me, that would be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a impressive qualifying run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured 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 more notable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with each not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers three points clear of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

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

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Ireland.

After taken just one point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive 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 stunned Hungary to secure runner-up spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of those, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.