How excited are you that the World Cup 2018 draw takes place tonight? We just can’t deal! Anyway, after all those tireless qualification rounds and playoffs (Italy and Netherlands – we’ll miss you!), the groups will be drawn tonight at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow at 15:00 GMT.
According to FIFA rules, teams will be seeded based on the October 2017 World rankings. There are four pots – each containing eight teams. Russia will be joined in pot one by the seven highest-ranked teams, with the next eight in pot two, the following eight in pot three and the lowest ranked eight in pot four.
No teams from the same confederation, with the exception of Uefa, will be drawn in the same group and a maximum of two European countries can be in any group.
In the meantime, here are the pots. Can someone please group Argentina and England together again – we need nostalgia back in the game!
| World Cup pots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Russia (hosts) | Spain (8) | Denmark (19) | Serbia (38) |
| Germany (1) | Peru (10) | Iceland (21) | Nigeria (41) |
| Brazil (2) | Switzerland (11) | Costa Rica (22) | Australia (43) |
| Portugal (3) | England (12) | Sweden (25) | Japan (44) |
| Argentina (4) | Colombia (13) | Tunisia (28) | Morocco (48) |
| Belgium (5) | Mexico (16) | Egypt (30) | Panama (49) |
| Poland (6) | Uruguay (17) | Senegal (32) | South Korea (62) |
| France (7) | Croatia (18) | Iran (34) | Saudi Arabia (63) |
