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The team's sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semi-final and potential final challengers.

After ended second in their qualifying pool following a commanding 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their biggest win since 1978 – Wales will host the semi-final match on their own turf.

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

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw believes the Dragons will relish a match against any opponent following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mindset is 'give us anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many supporters were wondering recently, 'should we actually want Ireland as it's that derby feel?'. In my view a number of supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we'll take Kosovo or Bosnia and the Albanians are competitive and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so it will be challenging.

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

Possible Playoff Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed thirty-fourth in the world rankings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side 84th.

Albania had a strong qualifying run, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who secured 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 forward Rey Manaj who led their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and the 2024 Euros, not managing to advance to the knockout stages on each occasions.

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

The Switzerland ended the six-match qualifiers 3 points clear of Kosovo, whose single defeat was at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include ex- Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a maiden major tournament appearance.

They have never played the Welsh team.

Bosnia-Herzegovina lost just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but nonetheless finished two points behind of Group H winners Austria.

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

The Welsh have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

Being his country's all-time leading scorer and record appearance player, ex- Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's standout player.

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

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken only a single point from their opening three matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with successive wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored the two goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take runner-up spot in Group F in thrilling style.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a crucial role in his team's resurgence while Premier League goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one jersey his own.

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