England will play Belgium, Panama, and Tunisia in Group G of the 2018 World Cup

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England will play Belgium, Panama, and Tunisia in Group G of the 2018 World Cup

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world cup trophy russia

Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

The World Cup trophy on display in Moscow, Russia.

The English football team will play Belgium, Panama, and Tunisia in the 2018 World Cup.

The rival teams were revealed in a ceremony on Friday evening at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. The games will be hosted by Russia next year.

Thirty-two countries - 31 countries plus Russia, who secured its place as the host - will take part in the games.

Earlier this month the teams were sorted into four "pots" according to their FIFA rankings, with Russia remaining in the first pot as host.

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Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, and France are currently the highest-ranked teams. England is in Pot 2.

Teams have been drawn from their pots, and divided into eight groups of four teams each. The eight top seeds occupied the top spots in each group, while the positions of all the other teams were picked randomly.

Here is the final World Cup 2018 draw:

  • Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay
  • Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran
  • Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark
  • Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria
  • Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
  • Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Korea Republic
  • Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England
  • Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the ceremony's opening speech. The World Cup will begin on June 14, 2018, and end on July 15, 2018.

On Thursday, FIFA released a video starring football players from each World Cup team - including Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Antoine Griezmann - congratulating each other for qualifying into the tournament.

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