World Cup 2018 Russia Draw Throws Up Exciting Groups
Highlights:
- Russia were drawn with Argentina in Group A
- England and Belgium are in Group G
- Portugal and Spain in Group B
- There are a total of 8 groups
- 32 teams will participate in the WC
As the 2018 FIFA World Cup draws ever closer the most anticipated event to its build up took place in Russia with the draw for the world cup happening. Almost all the big names in the football fraternity were present in the host country as the 32 teams taking part in the tournament were drawn together in eight groups with each group having four teams each. The ceremony was a grand event with the 2018 World Cup finals draw featuring fantastic folk dancing, two musical interludes of dubious quality and some incident-free ball-pulling.
The World Cup draw took place at the Kremlin in a grand arena which was totally befitting of an occasion of such magnitude. The event was kicked off by Russian President Vladimir Putin who welcomed the dignitaries and all the nations participating to Russia and spoke about the lengths the country has gone to make the tournament a huge success. This was followed by some brilliant performances ranging from a host of activities which saw local Russian culture to singing and dancing as show. The festivities were just a build up to the main event of the night which saw footballing legends like Maradona, Puyol, Gary Neville among others take part in the main draw.
The 32 qualified teams, allocated in four pots based on their October FIFA ranking, were drawn into groups A to H based on some rules .There could be no more than two teams from Europe in any one pot, and no more than one nation from any other continental confederation.
The draw saw Russia, England and France getting favourable draws. Portugal will play neighbor Spain in Group B, and Argentina drew one of the tougher first-round groups, as it was paired with Croatia, Iceland and Nigeria.
The 8 Groups from A-H:
- Group A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
- Group B: Portugal, Spain, Iran, Morocco
- Group C: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia
- Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria
- Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
- Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea
- Group G: Belgium, England, Tunisia, Panama
- Group H: Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan
For more updates, do Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.