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Wales' sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final opponents.

After finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool following a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semi-final match on home soil.

They will play against either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Ex- Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a tie against whichever opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mindset is 'give us whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many fans were wondering last night, 'do we actually want Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many people were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so they'll be tough.

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

Potential Playoff Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

Wales sit thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo 84th.

Albania had a solid qualifying run, with their only defeats coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured maximum points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable players, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Importantly, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on both times.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-game campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one loss came at the hands of the group winners.

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

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and earned a point more than Wales managed in their eight games, but still finished two points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

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

As his country's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The veteran was his team's leading goalscorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Ireland.

After secured only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in Group F in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's resurgence while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their past 4 meetings with the Welsh, losing 3 of these, though James McClean broke the hearts of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.