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The team's sights are firmly on Thursday's World Cup play-off fixture as they prepare for learning their semi-final and possible final opponents.

Having ended as runners-up in their qualification pool following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final encounter on home soil.

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

Former Wales forward Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will embrace a match against any team following their latest result at Cardiff City Stadium.

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

"A lot of supporters were wondering last night, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that local feel?'. In my view a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that would be incredible.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we're ready for the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they are a very good team so it will be challenging.

"But you just feel that we'll take anybody at the moment and we're confident, and much of that is because of Craig Bellamy."

Possible Play-off Semi-final Opponents Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with the Albanian team 61st, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia 75th and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team had a solid qualification run, with their sole losses suffered at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without conceding a solitary goal.

The Premier League's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's prominent players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in qualifying with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, although they featured at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the knockout stages on both occasions.

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

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

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his country's historic leading goalscorer – in a team targeting a first major tournament appearance.

They have not yet played Wales.

Bosnia lost only one time in qualifying, and claimed a point more than Wales achieved in their eight games, but nonetheless ended two points adrift of their group winners Austria.

They were 13 minutes away from securing a place at the World Cup, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians meant the pair tied in the final game of qualification and Ralf Rangnick's team topped the group.

Wales have not managed to defeat the Bosnians in four matches but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's historic leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia-Herzegovina's key player.

The 39-year-old was his squad's top scorer in the qualifiers with 5 goals.

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott netted 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 Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to take second place in Group F in thrilling fashion.

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

Ireland are winless in their past four meetings with Wales, defeated in three of those, although James McClean broke the hopes of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's men won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.