Gareth Southgate claims England's fixture against United States will be an "intriguing" encounter after the Three Lions discovered their group-stage opponents at the 2022 World Cup.
FIFA conducted the draw for the tournament on Friday evening, handing England what appears to be a favourable group containing the US, Iran and one of Wales, Scotland or Ukraine. The Three Lions were in Pot 1 and avoided the likes of Germany, Netherlands and Uruguay, who could have joined them in Group B from Pot 2.
Reacting to the draw, Alan Shearer declared Southgate and his players will be pleased with their group at the World Cup, which kicks off in Qatar this November. However, the England manager refused to get carried away and pointed to the fixture against the US as a potential banana skin.
"When you're seeded, you get the advantage of missing out on those big six or seven teams," Southgate told BBC Sport. "For most of the first seeds, they'd be pleased with the first group they get. There are some really highly ranked teams in pot two, and the US is an interesting one. I know [US manager] Gregg Berhalter quite well, we've met a few times and had long chats about things, in fact only a few weeks ago, so we were smiling at the end there.
"But they've got some really good players, we know what they could be capable of as a nation, so that one in particular is an intriguing one." England will play on the opening day of the tournament, 21 November, so Southgate stressed the need to fly his squad out to the Middle East as soon as possible after the Premier League season is temporarily halted.
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He added: "The first two teams [USA and Iran] we haven't played for quite a while, and the third is a total unknown but throws up a possible British derby. We know what they're about and we've had plenty of them. For us, we're in on day one so it's quite clear what our programme looks like with the end of the Premier League season, getting out here as quickly as possible."
The 51-year-old reaffirmed he is not taking progression to the knockout stage of the tournament for granted, saying: "We've got to get out the group. What we've done well is we've approached these tournaments by looking at the group, the first objective is getting out of the group regardless of the opposition, then you build from there."
