World Cup draw thread and that. 3pm UK time and that.

[Stevencc]

But probably actually kicks off half an hour later than that and that.

 

[Flustercuck]

How long it is?

 

[Krazy8]

Just tried a simulator and we ended with France, Egypt and Japan.

Not that it really matters but it would be much better if they didn’t have the rules about how many countries from each confederation can be in each group imo.

 

[Posh Hammer]

Just did the Telegraph simulator. First attempt if only this was the actual draw!

 

[Monkey]

Interested in this draw. Think we will win this.

 

[Stevencc]

Go on Lineker, lay the nut on Putin.

 

[Monkey]

Go on Lineker, lay the nut on Putin.

I'm going to add Putin to the people I'd like to punch thread

 

[Stevencc]

Belgium to start with, could have been worse.

 

[mente captus]

Belgium to start with, could have been worse.

will be played on the last matchday

 

[Stevencc]

Tunisia.

 

[mente captus]

Tunisia.

opener for England

 

[Stevencc]

opener for England

Our group isn't bad at all.

Still well within our power to fuck it up, of course.

 

[mente captus]

Our group isn't bad at all.

Still well within our power to fuck it up, of course.

nah, you need tough opponents in your group who will show you your weak points before it comes to the knock out stage

 

[Stevencc]

nah, you need tough opponents in your group who will show you your weak points before it comes to the knock out stage

But our weak point is everything, we already know!

 

[Krazy8]

nah, you need tough opponents in your group who will show you your weak points before it comes to the knock out stage

We’ll make them tough opponents, no worries about that.

 

[Abertawe]

Bad group for England - wouldn't surprise to see em crash out.

Spain, Portugal, Morocco is a tasty triangle.

 

[Leewilson]

If we don't qualify from this group we may as well give up now.

Belgium was one of the kinder matches since most of the players will be familiar and play a similar brand of football to us. We'd have struggled with France/Germany/Brazil etc.

Tunisia are not one of the strongest African nations and had a fairly kind qualifying group. I'd expect a scrappy opening game, maybe a 1-0 or 2-0 win.

Panama are the weakest team in the competition, if not, at least one of the weakest. No excuses there at all. We should have 6 points by the time we play Belgium.

The good news is that a 2nd round match would be against Poland, Senegal, Columbia or Japan, which is a very open group and could realistically be any of them nations. Then again, we struggled with Iceland so we should take nothing for granted and just go for it. We're used to losing so there should be no fear. If it happens again, so be it.

 

[liu]

Bad draw for Asian countries as expected under the new system. Only Japan have some realistic chance to go through.
As for England, hard to imagine people would expect an easier group. Got one of the weaker sides from all the other three pots.

 

[epic73]

My group predictions:

Uruguay
Russia
Egypt
Saudi Arabia

Portugal
Spain
Morocco
Iran

France
Denmark
Australia
Peru

Argentina
Croatia
Iceland
Nigeria

Brazil
Serbia
Switzerland
Costa Rica

Germany
Mexico
Sweden
South Korea

Belgium
England
Tunisia
Panama

Poland
Colombia
Japan
Senegal

 

[Super_horns]

Kind draw for England although Belgium will ofcourse be very tough if they turn up.

Also avoided a potential last 16 tie against one of the big boys ..

Russia v Saudi Arabia to kick off the World Cup - very underwhelming start!

 

[mente captus]

but could be an very easy road for the germans.

first knockout runner-up of the Brazil group and QF winner of the poland group and runner-up of the England group

 

[Jax]

England have no excuse not getting out of that group and possibly even past the last 16 though our journey will end at the last 8 either way because Brazil or Germany awaits.

 

[Stevencc]

Our mate MisterMagic reckons Man City have already won this.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

It's a decent group but I would have preferred the Belgium game to be first up.

 

[Libertadores FC]

mistermagic got his dream group

 

[Vanni]

Cheers Epic, saved me a lot of typing

Haven't checked out the fixtures yet (esp. the opening fixtures when sides are still finding their feet and this obviously complicates things esp.when the underdogs get something out of their opening game) I'd go with this for now -

Uruguay
Russia
Egypt
Saudi Arabia

Spain
Portugal
Morocco
Iran

France
Peru
Denmark
Australia

Argentina
Iceland
Nigeria
Croatia

Brazil
Switzerland
Serbia
Costa Rica

Germany
Mexico
Sweden
South Korea

England
Belgium
Tunisia
Panama

Colombia
Poland
Japan
Senegal

PS - goes without saying that I hope I'm wrong on Group C

 

[Vanni]

Groups C and D appear to be the toughest groups, and H looks a bit tricky too. On paper that is. What do you people reckon?

 

[epic73]

Cheers Epic, saved me a lot of typing

How?

 

[Vanni]

How?

I couldn't watch the draw, so your post was handy as I could just copy and paste you post and swap around a handful of teams.

 

[Flustercuck]

I am not sold on Argentina topping their group.Could create problems for France