🔗 Share this article

The team's focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they await learning their semifinal and possible final opponents.

Having finished second in their qualification group following a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will welcome a tie against any opponent 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, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many supporters were saying last night, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local feel?'. In my view many people didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a strong team so it will be tough.

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

Potential Play-off Semi-final Opponents Reviewed

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania enjoyed a strong qualification campaign, with their sole losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in the qualifiers with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had torrid campaigns, with each not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a team targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales managed in their eight games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of their group 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 pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in the qualifiers with five goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having secured just one point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his side's resurgence while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.

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