🔗 Share this article

Wales' sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff fixture as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and potential final rivals.

Having finished as runners-up in their qualification pool following a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – the side will host the semifinal match on their own turf.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

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

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were saying last night, 'do we really want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think many people didn't. But for me, that would be amazing.

"It's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or Bosnia and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so they'll be tough.

"However you just feel that we're prepared for anyone at the moment and it doesn't matter, and a lot of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Opponents Reviewed

Wales sit 34th in the FIFA standings, with Albania 61st, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

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

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford striker Rey Manaj who led their scoring chart in qualifying with three goals.

It is worth noting, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the knockout stages on each times.

While Slovenia and Sweden endured difficult runs, with both not managing to win a qualifying match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss finished the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of the Kosovans, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

The Kosovan squad include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time top scorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in qualifying, and claimed a point more than the Welsh managed in their eight games, but still finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from clinching a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the pool.

The Welsh have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after losing.

As his country's historic top goalscorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia's key player.

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

Lastly, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening three qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before scoring a hat-trick – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic style.

Key player Seamus Coleman played a crucial role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the starting position his own.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their past 4 encounters with the Welsh, losing 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.