🔗 Share this article

Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final opponents.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final encounter on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will welcome a tie against whichever team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his approach is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of people were asking recently, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that would be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Republic of Ireland, naturally, they're a capable team so it will be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Play-off Semifinal Rivals Assessed

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a impressive qualifying run, with their only losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured full points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's more notable players, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured torrid campaigns, with both failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points ahead of the Kosovans, whose one defeat was at the hands of the group winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's historic leading goalscorer – in a squad targeting a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated only one time in qualifying, and earned a point additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 matches but did have a memorable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his nation's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his side's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting jersey his to keep.

Ireland are without a win in their last four meetings with the Welsh, 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.