Wales will find out their 2022 World Cup group stage opponents this afternoon - should they qualify for the tournament.
Rob Page's men defeated Austria in their World Cup play-off semi-final match last week to set up a final clash with either Scotland or Ukraine in June. All three teams will be in the hat for the draw, which takes place on Friday afternoon in host country Qatar.
Ahead of the draw, we look at the best and worst-case scenarios that Wales could face, with anticipation building for a tournament the Red Dragons haven't featured in since 1958. Wales are in pot four, alongside Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Scotland/Ukraine, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Australia/UAE/Peru.
READ MORE: How the World Cup draw works and why Wales are in pot four
A ball drawn which includes Wales will also include Ukraine and Scotland, as any of the three sides are still able to qualify for the tournament. Due to FIFA being unable to determine official rankings for the sides in the play-offs, all teams still in the mix to qualify were placed in pot four. The delay was caused because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The draw takes place in Doha today, starting at 5pm UK time. You read more about how the draw works here.
The pots:
Pot 1:
Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal.
Pot 2:
Mexico, United States, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Uruguay, Switzerland, Croatia.
Pot 3:
Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia.
Pot 4:
Canada, Cameroon, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Scotland/Ukraine/WALES, Australia/UAE/Peru, Costa Rica/New Zealand.
Eight groups of four will be drawn from these pots.
How do the pots work?
Pot one features the seven highest ranked teams, plus Qatar who are automatically placed in this group due to host privileges. All eight groups in the tournament will have at least one European team, with five groups having two. Pots are ranked in seeds, so pot one represents the highest-ranked seeds, down to pot four. Teams ranked eight to 15 are in pot two, 16 to 23 in pot three and pot four includes qualified teams in positions 24 to 28, as well as the remaining play-off contenders.
Wales would have been included in pot three purely based on their FIFA ranking of 18th, however, are placed in pot four as they are still in the play-offs.
The best-case scenario
Qatar (Ranking: 51st)
A no-brainer. Compared to the other seven top-ranked teams in this pot, drawing Qatar would be an unbelievable slice of luck for Wales. One of the lowest ranked teams in the competition, Qatar are 51st according to FIFA, however automatically qualify due to host privileges in the top pot.
Head coach Felix Sanchez started his coaching career with Barcelona’s youth teams, and then worked his way up through Qatar’s U19s and 23s before taking charge of the first team. With a squad of players mainly playing their domestic football in Qatar, there aren’t exactly many household names in there. Abdelkarim Hassan has more than 100 caps for the Qatar national team, and won the Asian footballer of the year award in 2018.
USA (Ranking: 15th)
From pot two, we think the United States are Wales’ best bet. Ranked 15th, they will be no easy feat, but are the best Wales can hope for. Despite falling to a defeat at the hands of Costa Rica, other results on Wednesday meant the US had enough to qualify.
The team had been mocked after celebrating a game too early on Sunday after their 5-1 win over Panama. Players unveiled a ‘QUALIFIED’ banner, despite their place in Qatar not yet being confirmed. Manager Gregg Berhalter coached Columbus Crew and was assistant at LA Galaxy before taking the national team job. He has overseen the team since 2018.
Christian Pulisic is the first name that stands out on a US team sheet, as the Chelsea man has been nicknamed ‘Captain America’ by fans and players.
Tunisia (Ranking: 35th)
After drawing with Mali 0-0 at home on Tuesday, Tunisia secured their place in the competition. The team made it through to the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in January, but were eliminated after losing 1-0 to Burkina Faso.
Head coach Jalel Kadri has not been short of clubs in his 20 years of management. He has overseen 24 different teams, including Tunisia’s U20s and a spell as the men’s side’s assistant manager. One of the most notable names for EFL fans would be Mohamed Drager, a Nottingham Forest right-back currently on loan at Swiss club Luzern.
The worst-case scenario
Brazil (Ranking: 1st)
Kicking off the nightmare scenario this afternoon, who better to start with than the top-ranked side in the competition? Alisson, Telles, Fabinho, Richarlison, Coutinho. Yeah, wouldn’t be an easy game this one. Manager Tite has been in charge of Brazil since 2016, after two spells spanning six years with Brazilian side Corinthians. Notably, England are also in this pot. What a draw that would be.
Netherlands (Ranking: 10th)
Pot two could necessarily throw up a few nightmare draws for Wales, potentially the worst of which being the Netherlands. Under former Manchester United head coach Louis van Gaal, the Netherland’s topped their qualifying group, ahead of second place Turkey.
No other than arguably the world’s best centre-back, Virgil Van Dijk, captains the side. He’s joined by other big names such as Daley Blind, Memphis Depay and Matthijs de Ligt. So this might be one to try to avoid.
Senegal (Ranking: 20th)
Finally, from the lowest of the three pots Wales will be drawn against, we’ve chosen Senegal as the worst-case scenario draw. After drawing 0-0 with Mo Salah’s Egypt in the AFCON final, Senegal went on to win the tournament after winning 4-2 on penalties.
The first name that comes to mind when you think of Senegal will probably be Sadio Mane. However, they are far from a one-man team. Watford’s Ismaila Sarr, Leicester’s Nampalys Mendy, Bayern Munich’s Bouna Sarr and Olympiacos’ Pape Abou Cisse are not exactly names to be missed on a team sheet either. Former Portsmouth defender Aliou Cisse has been in charge of the Senegalese national team since 2015.
Join our live blog today to find out who Wales will actually draw, and comment below who you want to see drawn out of the hat.
