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Wales' sights are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final rivals.

After ended as runners-up in their qualification pool following a commanding 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will relish a tie against whichever opponent following their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were wondering recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so they'll be tough.

"But the sense is that we'll take anybody right now and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania enjoyed a solid qualifying run, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet qualified for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with each failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers three points ahead of the Kosovans, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo feature former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have never faced the Welsh team.

Bosnia lost only one time in qualifying, and earned a point more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have failed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having taken 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 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 style.

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

Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with the Welsh, losing 3 of those, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.