The World Cup won’t be won on Friday, but it can be lost if the balls fall wrong for your country’s team. There is only so much luck of the draw to go around, after all. Land into a tough group and it can get very difficult very fast.
Ahead of the draw, each team that qualified was assigned to one of four pots, based on its world ranking. One team from each pot will be placed in each of the eight World Cup opening round groups, creating eight groups of four.