Friday December 1, 2017
The 2018 FIFA World Cup draw is here!
There 32 countries were divided into four "pot." The top seeds were all placed in Pot 1 and were assigned to groups first. Those were followed by the teams in Pot 2 and so on, with the lowest seeded teams in Pot 4 grouped last. A handful of adjustments happened along the way to keep teams from the same region out of the same groups.
Here are the four pots that determined the draw, based on the FIFA world rankings in October:
Pot 1: Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France
Pot 2: Spain, Peru, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Croatia
Pot 3: Denmark, Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Iran
Pot 4: Serbia, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Morocco, Panama, South Korea and Saudi Arabia
Here are the groups:
GROUP A — Russia is the top seed
A1 — RUSSIA
A2 — SAUDI ARABIA
A3 — EGYPT
A4 — URUGUAY
GROUP B — Portugal is the top seed
B1 — PORTUGAL
B2 — SPAIN
B3 — MOROCCO
B4 — IRAN
GROUP C — France is the top seed
C1 — FRANCE
C2 — AUSTRALIA
C3 — PERU
C4 — DENMARK
GROUP D — Argentina is the top seed
D1 — ARGENTINA
D2 — ICELAND
D3 — CROATIA
D4 — NIGERIA
GROUP E — BRAZIL is the top seed
E1 — BRAZIL
E2 — SWITZERLAND
E3 — COSTA RICA
E4 — SERBIA
GROUP F — GERMANY is the top seed
F1 — GERMANY
F2 — MEXICO
F3 — SWEDEN
F4 — SOUTH KOREA
GROUP G — BELGIUM is the top seed
G1 — BELGIUM
G2 — PANAMA
G3 — TUNISIA
G4 — ENGLAND
GROUP H — POLAND is the top seed
H1 — POLAND
H2 — SENEGAL
H3 — COLOMBIA
H4 — JAPAN