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The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await learning their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final match on home soil.

They will meet either the Albanian side, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will welcome a match against whichever opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many supporters were saying recently, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But for me, that would be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they're a strong team so they'll be challenging.

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

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales are placed thirty-fourth in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured 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 Albanian squad's prominent names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a team aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing 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 won the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

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

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured only a single point from their first 3 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 triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in thrilling style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his own.

Ireland are winless in their last four encounters with Wales, losing three of these, although 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.