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The team's focus are firmly on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for learning their semifinal and potential final challengers.

After finished as runners-up in their qualifying pool thanks to a decisive 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal encounter on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo or Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will relish a tie against whichever opponent following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on whoever, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of people were asking last night, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view many supporters didn't. But for me, that could be fantastic.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are decent and Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

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Wales are placed 34th in the FIFA rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's more notable names, although it was ex- Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who led their goal tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden had difficult campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and Kosovo.

The Switzerland ended the six-game campaign 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose one defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic top scorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than the Welsh achieved in their 8 games, but still finished two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's leveler for the Austrians ensured the teams tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in four attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his country's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

After taken only a single point from their first three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side surged 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 bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish stunned Hungary to secure runner-up spot in Group F in thrilling fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with the Welsh, defeated in three of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.