🔗 Share this article

The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they await discovering their semi-final and possible final challengers.

Having ended second in their qualifying group following a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will welcome a tie against any team after their latest performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many fans were wondering last night, 'should we actually want Ireland because of that local feel?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they are a very good team so it will be tough.

"However you just feel that we're prepared for anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semifinal Rivals Evaluated

Wales are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

The Albanian national team had a impressive qualifying campaign, with their sole defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's recognizable players, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in qualifying with three goals.

Importantly, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, although they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor campaigns, with both failing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Swiss ended the six-game qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a point additional than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended 2 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 meant the pair drew in the last game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

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

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

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken just one point from their first three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged into the play-offs with successive 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 arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure second place in Group F in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his to keep.

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