World Cup 2018 draw: Who can England play, when is it, how does it work, best and worst possible groups and more

The draw will commence on Friday with talk already intensifying as to who Gareth Southgate’s side can get next summer

The World Cup group stage draw is fast approaching - but who will England get?

Gareth Southgate’s side qualified with ease though the Three Lions will be wary after suffering premature exits at each of the last two finals. Both the 2010 and 2014 experiences showed that nothing can be taken for granted in tournament football, regardless of who is drawn with who, with England faltering against supposedly lesser opponents each time.

Even so, as the countdown to the draw commences, excitement builds - so who could England draw in the 2018 group stages?

Follow all of the build-up and action live from Russia with our World Cup draw live blog

When is the draw?

The draw will take place on Friday 1 December at the Kremlin in Moscow.

How does it work?

The 32 qualified teams will be split into four seeded ‘pots’, with seedings based on Fifa’s world rankings.

Pot 1 contains the hosts Russia and the seven highest-ranked teams, Pot 2 includes the next highest-ranked teams and so on.

One team from each pot will be drawn into one of the eight World Cup groups - lettered A to H.

Russia, as hosts, will be drawn into Group A.

Are England seeded?

England will be in Pot 2 and are therefore effectively second seeds. They will be drawn alongside one team from each of the other three pots.

Who can England draw?

England will draw one team from each of the following pots.

Pot 1: Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France.

Pot 3: Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Iran.

Pot 4: Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Morocco, Panama, South Korea, Saudi Arabia.

Gareth Southgate’s side could also play Serbia or Denmark who have qualified but are yet to be assigned a pot.

Who can’t England draw?

England will not draw any team in Pot 2, with six other qualified nations assigned to the pot at the time of writing.

Cannot draw: Spain, Switzerland, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Croatia, Peru.

What is England’s best possible draw?

According to often-disputed Fifa’s world rankings, England’s best possible draw would include Russia, Senegal and Saudi Arabia.

What is England’s worst possible draw?

Again, according to Fifa’s world rankings, England’s worst possible draw would include Germany, Costa Rica and Nigeria.

However, it is easy to come up with draws which look just as competitive - if not more so - than the ‘worst’ offering from the rankings.

England could just as easily face Brazil, Sweden and Japan or Argentina, Iceland and South Korea.