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Wales' sights are squarely on the upcoming World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final challengers.

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

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will relish a match against any team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"Many supporters were wondering last night, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view many people didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or the Bosnians and Albania are not bad and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be challenging.

"But the sense is that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualifying campaign, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor runs, with each not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-match campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost only one time in the qualifiers, and earned a point additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but experienced a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after losing.

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

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

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second spot in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their last 4 meetings with the Welsh, defeated in 3 of these, though James McClean shattered the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.