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The team's attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final rivals.

After finished as runners-up in their qualification group thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – the side will play the semifinal match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Welsh squad will relish a tie against whichever team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mindset is 'give us anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw commented.

"Many people were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But personally, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or the Bosnians and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they are a capable team so they'll be challenging.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody right now and we're confident, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

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The Welsh squad sit thirty-fourth in the world standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualification campaign, with their sole defeats coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without allowing a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Red and Blacks's more notable names, though it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualification match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose single loss came at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo feature former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic top scorer – in a squad targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in the qualifiers, and claimed a points more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but still finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnian side in four matches but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's standout player.

The 39-year-old was his team's top scorer in qualifying with five goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure second spot in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their past four encounters with Wales, defeated in 3 of those, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Red Wall as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.