Craig Bellamy's squad Prepared to Face Anybody in World Cup Qualifying Fixture

Wales' attention are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for learning their semi-final and possible final rivals.

After finished second in their qualification group thanks to a dominant 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – Wales will play the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Welsh squad will embrace a tie against any opponent after their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of people were wondering last night, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland as it's that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that could be amazing.

"It's one of those, yes, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a very good team so they'll be tough.

"But you just feel that we'll take anyone right now and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Potential Playoff Semifinal Opponents Assessed

The Welsh squad sit 34th in the FIFA rankings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

Albania had a impressive qualification run, with their only defeats suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who secured maximum points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's prominent names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in the qualifiers with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, failing to advance to the knockout stages on both occasions.

As Slovenia and Sweden endured poor runs, with each not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a direct battle between Switzerland and Kosovo.

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

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a maiden international competition appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost just once in qualifying, and earned a points additional than Wales achieved in their eight games, but still ended 2 points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser 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 beat the Bosnians in four attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman despite losing.

Being his country's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's star player.

The veteran was his squad's top scorer in qualifying with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

After secured just one point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to take second place in their group in thrilling fashion.

Talisman Seamus Coleman played a vital role in his side's revival while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the starting position his own.

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