🌎 🏆 World Cup Group Stage Draw 🌎 🏆

[Stephen Malkmus]

Who do we fancy then? We're in pot 4 as a combined entrant with Wales and Ukraine.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/12354033/world-cup-2022-dates-draw-schedule-kick-off-times-final-for-qatar-tournament

Edited March 30, 2022 by Stephen Malkmus

[jimbaxters]

If possible Qatar, Serbia and Tunisia please.

[Donathan]

I believe tonight’s Panama v Canada game is the final game with seeding implications (unless Costa Rica pull off a miracle to qualify directly). A win for the Canadians will put them in pot 3 at Tunisia’s expense. Any other result, Canada stay in pot 4 and Tunisia will be pot 3.

 

 

Pot 1: Qatar (hosts), Belgium, Brazil, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal

Pot 2: Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, USA, Switzerland, Croatia, Uruguay

Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia/Canada

Pot 4: Canada/Tunisia, Cameroon, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Playoff winner 1*, Playoff winner 2**, Playoff winner 3***

 

 

The draw will also be fixed so that:

 

- Each group will contain at least 1 (but not more than 2) UEFA teams. Five of the eight groups will have two European teams and the other 3 will have only one.

 

- In all other cases, teams from the same confederation are to be kept apart.

 

So simply put, “we” will draw a team from 3 of the 5 possible confederations (UEFA, CAF, AFC, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF)

 

We cannot be drawn with an OFC team since they are guaranteed to be pot 4.

 

Is there an argument that you want to draw a really good team from pot 1 to get your European/South American opponent out the way and hope they skoosh the group allowing a 3-way fight for second place?

[bdu98196]

Really want to avoid European teams like England/France/Belgium/Germany/Holland not from a better than us perspective but its boring seeing the same opposition appear every few years.

So an ideal group for entertainment would be

• Brazil / Mexico  /Japan

Looking at one to have the best chance (on paper) to qualify from

• Qatar / Swiss / Iran or Canada

 

[denltfc]

You could see some very lopsided groups Qatar have to be one of the weakest pot 1 teams ever to play at the world cup. 

 

You could have a 

 

Qatar, Switzerland, Tunisia, Canada 

 

or Brazil, Germany, Senegal, Scotland 

 

England will get Switzerland, Iran, Canada 

 

 

 

You can't beat the fun of draw generator 

 

https://draw.inker.one/#/wc/gs

Edited March 30, 2022 by denltfc

[Donathan]

24 minutes ago, denltfc said:

You could see some very lopsided groups Qatar have to be one of the weakest pot 1 teams ever to play at the world cup. 

 

You could have a 

 

Qatar, Switzerland, Tunisia, Canada 

 

or Brazil, Germany, Senegal, Scotland 

 

England will get Switzerland, Iran, Canada 

 

 

 

You can't beat the fun of draw generator 

 

https://draw.inker.one/#/wc/gs

I just drew out this effort which would be as close to a dream scenario as we could hope for 

 

 

[craigkillie]

Switzerland are miles better than us and probably in the top 7/8 teams in Europe, especially at major tournaments. I reckon I'd rather take anyone else from that pot apart from Germany.

Edited March 30, 2022 by craigkillie

[Lurkst]

2 hours ago, denltfc said:

You could see some very lopsided groups Qatar have to be one of the weakest pot 1 teams ever to play at the world cup. 

They are, although South Africa were ranked lower in 2010.

 

[forameus]

Pot 1 there's an obvious one you want.  Any of the other 7, on a normal day, would ride us rotten.  Who knows at a World cup though?  Pot 2 is slightly better, but not sure there's anyone in there you could really say you'd want.  I'd go for USA, as who really wants to face another European side, or Mexico, or get punted off the park by a smarter, bigger, cannier Uruguay side?  Whisky across the ocean stuff instead please.  Pot 3 is probably a similar story.  Serbia or Poland would be a bit shit and boring (although we could probably give either of them a game).  The African sides either seem to really turn up at World Cups, or (more often than not) stink the place out.  

Qatar, USA, Tunisia, Scotland would be a pleasing draw.  Belgium, Germany, Iran, Scotland would probably be amongst the worst. 

[Lurkst]

21 minutes ago, forameus said:

Belgium, Germany, Iran, Scotland would probably be amongst the worst. 

Fortunately I think three European teams can't be drawn together. 

 

[2426255]

Argentina, Netherlands, South Korea and Scotland would be a fun draw - at least until the games began. Something like that is what I would wish for.

[forameus]

20 minutes ago, Lurkst said:

Fortunately I think three European teams can't be drawn together. 

 

...I'm a tit.  I knew that, but thought that counting Belgium and Germany as the 2 European sides.  Not, of course, realising that we're also in Europe.  Durr.

In that case it opens things out a wee bit.  I put Belgium in as it would probably be the most tedious choice from top pot, so it goes from tedious to just plain "they'll f**k us up" with Brazil or Argentina.

Will be interesting to watch the draw, as I presume they'll start at pot 1 and move down.  We'll have massively cut down on the number of groups we can be drawn into by the time it gets to us.

[Donathan]

Each of the pots ranked from favourite opponent to least favourite:

 

Pot 1

Qatar - Yes please

Brazil - Qatar are the only team I think we have a great shot at a result against, but seeing us play Brazil would be cool.

Argentina - I’d prefer to avoid the Europeans.

Portugal - The preferred European opponent because we haven’t played them in a competitive game in nearly 30 years.

England - At this point we are on the meh opponents, but England tend to play down to our level so I’ll take them over the other 3.

France - They’ve not had a total implosion of infighting for a while to must be due one.

Spain - Ranked over Belgium purely as we’ve not played them in longer.

Belgium - Meh

 

Pot 2:

USA - They are a bit naff. Artificially high world ranking due to beating up on Caribbean minnows in qualifying.

Switzerland - Decent ranking due to their Euros run and they finished above Italy in qualifying, but I’m not convinced they’re world beaters and would fancy us to get a point off them.

Denmark - We proved ourselves against them at Hampden. Sure, they outclassed us at home though. I think we’d have a shot at a point off them on a neutral venue, especially given they will be as disadvantaged as we are by the heat.

Mexico - The heat point is why I put them below Denmark, but they’re no great shakes either. 

Croatia - They outclassed us at Hampden but I do think this Croatian team is past its best. They managed to roll back the years last summer but I don’t know if they could again.

Uruguay - I have zero desire to watch Grant Hanley v Luis Suarez.

Germany - Enough said

Netherlands - My dark horse pick to win the world cup

 

 

Pot 3:

 

Tunisia (?) - Struggling to even sneak in to pot 3 so if they do we should take them with open arms

Morocco - They were crap at the last World Cup and little reason to think that’s changed

Iran - They were crap at the last World Cup and little reason to think that’s changed

Serbia - Boring, but we’ve proved we can beat them

Canada (?) - Should be higher but drawing them implies we didn’t get the USA from pot 2, so they get a bump down.

South Korea - Son would destroy us. 

Japan - They’re a really organised team. Better than the sum of their parts. Plus home advantage with the World Cup being in Asia, and drawing them means we couldn’t get Qatar. 

Senegal - Mane would destroy us 

Poland - Boring plus Lewandowski would destroy us 

 

[immcinto]

4 hours ago, denltfc said:

 

You can't beat the fun of draw generator 

 

https://draw.inker.one/#/wc/gs

The UEFA team seems to end up in the Qatar group about 33% of the time using the draw generator. Is that right, or is there a bug? Seems a really high chance. Not that I am complaining!

[immcinto]

It seems like the Pot 4 UEFA team only has a 1 in 6 chance of drawing any Pot 1 UEFA team. 5 UEFA teams means a 1 in 30 chance of drawing any individual UEFA team. Pot 4 UEFA likely gets Qatar,Brazil or Argentina. If that simulator is correct

[Pie Of The Month]

4 minutes ago, immcinto said:

The UEFA team seems to end up in the Qatar group about 33% of the time using the draw generator. Is that right, or is there a bug? Seems a really high chance. Not that I am complaining!

 

It probably is right due to the fact the draw is done from pot 1 down to pot 4 so by the time the UEFA team is drawn from pot 4 there'll be at least 4 and possibly 5 groups with 2 European teams already in them where the UEFA team can't be drawn. The groups the UEFA team can't be drawn into is less likely to be the 1 with Qatar in it so increases the chances of ending up in that group.

I'm sure someone with a statistics background could work out exact odds but you always see when these types of draws are made there's a higher chance of certain teams ending up in certain groups. If you keep repeating that draw generator you'll probably find the UEFA team ends up with Brazil or Argentina more times than any pot 1 European team too.

[CM.]

My draw had the UEFA side in a group with Argentina, Senegal and USA. 

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

2 hours ago, Lurkst said:

They are, although South Africa were ranked lower in 2010.

 

Qatar have a slightly inflated rank (as a host) as the qualifiers for the WC coupled up with the Asian Championships.

[bdu98196]

2 hours ago, forameus said:

 Not, of course, realising that we're also in Europe.

Blame Brexit for that, be a generation of bairns growing up now with that thought too............

[bdu98196]

6 hours ago, denltfc said:

You can't beat the fun of draw generator 

 

https://draw.inker.one/#/wc/gs

TBH, if FIFA would use this it would get past the pain that is trying to watch these drawn out tournament draws