ENGLAND have been handed a familiar foe in our 2026 World Cup qualifying draw simulation.
With England winning their group in the Nations League it meant the Three Lions were likely to be drawn in a five-team group.
And that is exactly what has happened to England in SunSport’s simulated qualifying draw for the Uefa nations.
The games will be Thomas Tuchel’s first in charge of the Three Lions.
In our draw, England came out of pot one into Group I.
Follow the draw LIVE as it happens with SunSport’s blog
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Pot two included Wales, with pot three containing Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
And England have been booked into playing Wales after the Dragons were taken out of pot two.
However, Tuchel and co managed to avoid any other home nation sides, with both Scotland and the Republic of Ireland being put in four-team groups.
Instead, pot three drew out Montenegro for Group I, while pots four and five drew Estonia and Andorra respectively.
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A maximum of 16 Uefa teams will qualify for the expanded 48-team 2026 World Cup being held across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
These groups have been divided into six groups of four and six groups of five, with the top from each automatically qualifying for the tournament.
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Meanwhile, the runner-ups will go into the play-offs with four Nations League teams.
Five-team groups will start their campaigns in March while the four-team groups containing the winning Nations League quarter-finalists will start in September.
The winning teams in the Nations League quarter-finals must go into one of the four-team groups, but due to the draw taking place before the games are played they are put into the draw as placeholders.
A maximum of one losing quarter-finalist or one Nations League promotion-relegation play-off team can go in one group.
The real draw for the World Cup qualifying pots begins at 11am TODAY.
You will be able to keep up with the draw live with SunSport’s live blog.
World Cup qualifying draw simulated
Group A: Spain or Netherlands* (Pot 1), Sweden (Pot 2), SCOTLAND (Pot 3), Belarus (Pot 4)
Group B: Italy or Germany* (Pot 1), Ukraine (Pot 2), Slovenia (Pot 3), Luxembourg (Pot 4)
Group C: Denmark or Portugal* (Pot 1), Turkey (Pot 2), Republic of Ireland (Pot 3), Kosovo (Pot 4)
Group D: Croatia or France* (Pot 1), Czech Republic (Pot 2), Albania (Pot 3), Bulgaria (Pot 4)
Group E: Italy or Germany* (Pot 1), Hungary (Pot 2), North Macedonia (Pot 3), Armenia (Pot 4)
Group F: Spain or Netherlands* (Pot 1), Serbia (Pot 2), Georgia (Pot 3), Kazakhstan (Pot 4)
Group G: Denmark or Portugal* (Pot 1), Poland (Pot 2), Finland (Pot 3), Azerbaijan (Pot 4), Moldova (Pot 5)
Group H: Croatia or France* (Pot 1), Greece (Pot 2), Iceland (Pot 3), Cyprus (Pot 4), Malta (Pot 5)
Group I: ENGLAND (Pot 1), WALES (Pot 2), Montenegro (Pot 3), Estonia (Pot 4), Andorra (Pot 5)
Group J: Belgium (Pot 1) , Slovakia (Pot 2), Northern Ireland (Pot 3), Faroe Islands (Pot 4), Gibraltar (Pot 5)
Group K: Switzerland (Pot 1), Romania (Pot 2), Bosnia-Herzegovina (Pot 3), Latvia (Pot 4), Liechtenstein (Pot 5)
Group L: Austria (Pot 1), Norway (Pot 2), Israel (Pot 3), Lithuania (Pot 4), San Marino (Pot 5)
*Nations League quarter-finalists
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
