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

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

They will face either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Welsh squad will relish 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 whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"Many fans were saying recently, 'do we really want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"So it's one of those, yes, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be challenging.

"However the sense is that we'll take anybody right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a strong qualification campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of Group K 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 prominent names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never qualified for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose one loss was at the hands of the group winners.

The Kosovan squad include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

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

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

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a memorable loss against the Dragons as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take second spot in their group in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting jersey his own.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last four meetings with Wales, losing 3 of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.