No obvious “Group of Death” emerged when the 2018 FIFA World Cup draw was announced Friday morning.
In the draw, the 32 countries were divided into four “pots.” The top seeds were all placed in Pot 1 and were the first to be assigned to groups. 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 of the same region from being in the same group.
Group F and Group D appear to be the toughest divisions. Group F has Germany, the No. 1 team in the world; Mexico; Sweden, which may have been the top team from Pot 3; and South Korea. Group D also deserves some Group of Death mention, with Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, and Nigeria.
Group A, on the other hand, is being described as the “Group of Life” because of the lack of a dominant team. Russia, which made it into Pot 1 because it is the host country, is not grouped with any teams in the top 20, only one team in the top 30 (Uruguay), and the lowest-ranked team in the rest of the field (Saudi Arabia).
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, Saudi Arabia
Here are the groups:
