Nothing will ever quite make up for that dastardly act in Mexico in 1986 but the Hand of God did do England something of a favour here.
Diego Maradona drew the balls from Pot 2 and put Gareth Southgate’s side in Group G, with a relatively modest amount of travelling and a relatively easy task of progressing to the last 16.
Belgium remain tough opponents and England will do well to beat Roberto Martinez’s side when they are ranked fifth in the world, but Tunisia and Panama should not represent an insurmountable task even if some of Southgate’s players did contrive to lose to Iceland.
England will face Belgium, Tunisia and Panama in Group G; they face the Africans first
At one stage there was a 50-50 chance of either Brazil or Germany but host Gary Lineker joked that Maradona was good with his hands and so it proved once more, the Argentina legend only drawing England with two balls to go.
The Three Lions will face Roberto Martinez’s much fancied Belgians in Kaliningrad in their final group game, and will begin their tournament against the Tunisians in Volgograd – just as they did in France ’98.
The middle game comes against debutants Panama, in what is a group from which England will be confident of progressing.
Gareth Southgate will hope this tournament bucks the trend of recent poor performances
Group B saw neighbours Spain and Portugal paired together – they will face each other in their opening match – as well as Iran and Morocco, while reigning champions Germany were placed in Group F and will begin their defence against Mexico, before facing Sweden then South Korea.
Iceland’s first ever game at a World Cup finals will be against Argentina, as the side who embarrassed England at Euro 2016 were paired with the two time winners in Group D. Nigeria were drawn in the same group as Lionel Messi’s nation for the fifth time in six tournaments. Croatia rounded off the pool.
The opening game of the tournament will be Russia versus Saudi Arabia in Moscow, as they were paired in Group A with Egypt and Uruguay.
Belgium are top seeds in England’s pool, and the two sides will meet in the final group game
England’s opening game is against Tunisia – mirroring the draw from the 1998 World Cup
The other side in England’s group are Panama, who are in their first ever World Cup finals
England managed to avoid favourites Brazil, who were placed in Group E with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia. They could, however, face in the quarter finals.
Group C contains France, Australia, Peru and Denmark, while Group H has Poland, Senegal, Japan and Colombia. Should England progress, they will play one of the teams from H in the round of 16.
The draw for the tournament – which will take place between June 14 and July 15 2018 – was conducted at the Kremlin on a snow-swept day in Moscow.
Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker – who was top scorer at the 1986 World Cup for England – hosted proceedings, with the draw conducted by great footballing names including Diego Maradona and Gordon Banks.
The structure of the draw was different to previous years, with all four pots decided by the teams’ FIFA rankings, rather than by confederation as in past years.
This left England in Pot Two and at danger of facing tournament favourites such as Germany or Brazil, but also meant they avoided the likes of Spain and Uruguay, who were also in their sector.
England manager Gareth Southgate will hope this tournament bucks the trend of recent poor performances.
His side, under the management of Roy Hodgson, were eliminated from Brazil 2014 in the groups stage after one point from three games, while in Euro 2016 they were embarrassed by Iceland in the last 16.
England have only won the World Cup once, on home soil in 1966. Their best showing abroad was in Italy in 1990, when they were beaten on penalties in the semi finals.