🔗 Share this article

Wales' focus are squarely on Thursday's World Cup playoff draw as they prepare for discovering their semifinal and possible final challengers.

After finished second in their qualifying pool thanks to a dominant 7-1 triumph over North Macedonia – their largest win since 1978 – Wales will play the semifinal match on their own turf.

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

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

"I'm familiar with Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his mentality is 'give us whoever, we're ready'," Earnshaw stated.

"Many supporters were asking recently, 'should we really want Republic of Ireland because of that local atmosphere?'. In my view many supporters were hesitant. But for me, that could be incredible.

"It's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Ireland, naturally, they're a very good team so they'll be difficult.

"But the sense is that we'll take anybody at the moment and it doesn't matter, and much of that is down to Craig Bellamy."

Possible Playoff Semi-final Rivals Evaluated

The Welsh squad are placed 34th in the world standings, with the Albanian team sixty-first, Republic of Ireland sixty-second, Bosnia-Herzegovina seventy-fifth and Kosovo 84th.

The Albanian national team enjoyed a solid qualification campaign, with their sole losses coming at the hands of their group winners England, who claimed full points without allowing a solitary goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Albanian squad's recognizable names, though it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal tally in qualifying with three goals.

Notably, the Albanians have never earned a spot for a FIFA World Cup, though they participated at Euro 2016 and Euro 2024, not managing to reach the last 16 on each occasions.

While Slovenia and Sweden had poor campaigns, with both not managing to win a qualification match, Group B was a straight shootout between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-match campaign three points ahead of Kosovo, whose single defeat came at the hands of the group winners.

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

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia were defeated just once in qualifying, and earned a points more than the Welsh achieved in their eight games, but still finished 2 points behind of their group winners Austria.

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

Wales have not managed to beat the Bosnian side in 4 attempts but did have a memorable defeat against Zmajevi as they earned qualification for the 2016 European Championship under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his country's all-time top goalscorer and record appearance player, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, currently with Fiorentina, is undoubtedly Bosnia-Herzegovina's star player.

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

And finally, we have Ireland.

Having secured only a single point from their opening 3 qualifiers, Heimir Hallgrímsson's side stormed into the play-offs with back-to-back wins against Armenia, Portugal and Hungary.

Troy Parrott netted the two goals against Euro 2016 winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the third goal arriving in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland stunned Hungary to secure runner-up place in their group in dramatic fashion.

Key player Seamus Coleman had a vital role in his team's revival while Premier League keeper Caoimhin Kelleher has made the number one position his to keep.

The Republic of Ireland are winless in their last 4 encounters with Wales, defeated in three of those, although James McClean broke the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a decisive World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.