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

After ended second in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 triumph 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, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever team after their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were asking recently, 'do we really want Ireland because of that derby feel?'. In my view a number of people didn't. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"So 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 capable team so they'll be tough.

"However you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semi-final Rivals Assessed

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a solid qualification run, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's recognizable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had torrid runs, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose one loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a points more than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but still finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a unforgettable loss against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his nation's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

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

Ireland are without a win in their past four encounters with Wales, defeated in three of these, though James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.