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

After ended as runners-up in their qualifying group thanks to a dominant 7-1 win over North Macedonia – their largest success since 1978 – the side will host the semi-final match on home soil.

They will play against either Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or Ireland in that fixture on 26 March.

Ex- Wales forward Rob Earnshaw thinks the Dragons will embrace a match against any team following their most recent performance at Cardiff City Stadium.

"I know Craig Bellamy, we were teammates with him and his approach is 'bring on anyone, it doesn't matter'," Earnshaw commented.

"A lot of supporters were saying recently, 'do we actually want Republic of Ireland because of that derby atmosphere?'. I think a number of supporters were hesitant. But personally, that could be fantastic.

"So it's one of those, indeed, we're ready for Kosovo or Bosnia and Albania are decent and Republic of Ireland, of course, they're a capable team so it will be difficult.

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

Potential Play-off Semifinal Opponents Evaluated

Wales sit 34th in the world rankings, with Albania sixty-first, Republic of Ireland 62nd, Bosnia seventy-fifth and the Kosovan side eighty-fourth.

Albania had a strong qualification campaign, with their only losses suffered at the hands of Group K winners England, who claimed maximum points without conceding a single goal.

Burnley's Armando Broja and the Serie A side's Elseid Hysaj are among the Red and Blacks's more notable names, although it was former Inter Milan, Barcelona and Watford forward Rey Manaj who topped their goal chart in the qualifiers with 3 goals.

It is worth noting, Albania have not yet earned a spot for a World Cup, although they participated at the 2016 European Championship and Euro 2024, failing to advance to the last 16 on each times.

As Slovenia and Sweden had difficult runs, with both failing to win a qualifying match, their group was a direct battle between Switzerland and the Kosovan team.

The Switzerland ended the six-game qualifiers three points clear of the Kosovans, whose one defeat came at the hands of the pool winners.

Kosovo include former Manchester City keeper Arijanet Muric and La Liga's Vedat Muriqi – his nation's all-time leading goalscorer – in a squad aiming for a first international competition appearance.

They have never faced Wales.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were defeated just once in qualifying, and claimed a points more than Wales achieved in their 8 games, but still ended 2 points behind of their group winners Austria.

They were a quarter of an hour away from securing a spot at the finals, but Michael Gregoritsch's equaliser for the Austrians ensured the pair tied in the final game of qualifying and Ralf Rangnick's team won the group.

Wales have failed to beat the Bosnians in 4 attempts but experienced a memorable defeat against the Dragons as they qualified for Euro 2016 under Chris Coleman even after the defeat.

Being his nation's historic leading scorer and most-capped player, former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko, now at Fiorentina, is unquestionably Bosnia's standout player.

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

And finally, we have Republic of Ireland.

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

Troy Parrott scored both goals against the 2016 European Championship winners Portugal before bagging a hat-trick – with the final goal coming in the 96th minute – as the Republic of Ireland surprised Hungary to secure second spot in their group in dramatic fashion.

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

The Republic of Ireland are without a win in their past four meetings with the Welsh, losing three of these, although James McClean shattered the hearts of the Welsh fans as Martin O'Neill's team won a crucial World Cup qualifier at Cardiff City Stadium in 2017.