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The team's sights are squarely on Thursday's World Cup play-off draw as they prepare for learning their semifinal and possible final challengers.

After finished second in their qualifying pool following a commanding 7-1 victory over North Macedonia – their biggest success since 1978 – the side will host the semifinal encounter on their own turf.

They will face either the Albanian side, Bosnia, the Kosovan team or Republic of Ireland in that match on 26 March.

Former Wales striker Rob Earnshaw feels the Dragons will relish a tie against whichever opponent following their most recent result at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, I played with him and his mentality is 'bring on anyone, we're ready'," Earnshaw said.

"A lot of supporters were wondering last night, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. I think a number of people were hesitant. But personally, that would be amazing.

"So it's that type of situation, yes, we'll take the Kosovans or the Bosnians and the Albanians are not bad and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so they'll be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anyone right now and we're confident, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

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The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the FIFA standings, with Albania 61st, Ireland 62nd, Bosnia-Herzegovina 75th and Kosovo eighty-fourth.

Albania had a solid qualifying campaign, with their sole losses coming at the hands of Group K winners England, who secured full points without conceding a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and Lazio's Elseid Hysaj are part of the Albanian squad's more notable players, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their scoring tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, though they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, not managing to advance to the last 16 on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with each failing to win a qualification match, their group was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Swiss ended the six-match campaign 3 points ahead of Kosovo, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

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

They have not yet faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in the qualifiers, and claimed a points additional than Wales managed in their 8 games, but still finished 2 points behind of Group H 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 meant the teams drew in the last game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the pool.

The Welsh have failed to defeat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but experienced a unforgettable loss against Zmajevi as they qualified for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman despite the defeat.

As his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped 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 leading goalscorer in qualifying with five goals.

Lastly, we have Republic of Ireland.

Having taken just one point from their opening 3 matches, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the playoffs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott scored both goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a triple – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Irish surprised Hungary to take runner-up spot in Group F in dramatic style.

Talisman Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has secured the number one position his to keep.

Ireland are winless in their last 4 meetings with Wales, defeated in 3 of these, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifying match at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.