World Cup 2022: Jack Grealish excited at prospect of making it to Qatar with England as draw day arrives

The no-doubt drawn-out process of seeing which teams will face each other this winter in Qatar is due to start at around 5pm and there will be more sides anxious to avoid England than the other way around.

The Three Lions are top seeds, along with Belgium, Brazil, France, Argentina, Spain and Portugal, after four years of building some impressive momentum.

They reached the previous World Cup semi-finals and followed it by getting to the last four of the 2019 Nations League, then lost last summer’s European Championship final via a penalty shoot-out to Italy, who failed to qualify for Qatar. The way England booked their place at the controversial tournament has been hugely impressive.

For Manchester City forward Grealish, who has never played at a World Cup, the thought of doing so is exciting and the spirit in the camp adds to his belief England can justify their billing as one of the favourites.

“We’ll all be watching it,” he said of the draw. “It’ll be actually quite surreal watching a World Cup draw knowing I’ve got a chance of going (although) I know how difficult it’s going to be to get into a World Cup squad with the amount of talent we have here.

“As a group we don’t really fear anyone. It shows in our performances.

“We have such a confident group and such a good group of players, a mix of experience and younger players.”

Manager Gareth Southgate has built a good team spirit too.

“I was speaking to Conor Coady on the bench when I came off (on Tuesday),” said Grealish. “We were saying how much we love coming away here. I’ve heard people say it before, players that played for England 10, 15 years ago didn’t really enjoy it, but I love coming away. I love training and being with the lads.

“We’re playing with so much confidence and belief at the moment so looking ahead to the draw we’re going to be excited and we won’t really fear anyone.”

England’s will avoid the other top seeds and hosts Qatar but could face one from Croatia, who beat them in 2018, Christian Eriksen’s Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the winners of the play-off series involving Scotland, Wales and Ukraine, as well as Senegal, who despite being African champions are only seeded in pot three.

As usual, England will be hampered by the demands of domestic football at the first World Cup played in the middle of a European season.

Southgate’s Premier League players, who have four Nations League games in June, come back for next season earlier than usual, kicking off on the first weekend of August. The tournament begins eight days after the 16th round of league matches.

Being drawn in one of the later groups to kick-off could be a slight advantage.

“Every 24 hours might be somebody recovering from an injury or a little bit longer to recover from the time-change and the travel and prepare on the training pitch,” explained Southgate. “It is going to be really squeezed but we’ve just got to accept whatever hand we’re dealt. We’re in the same situation as most other nations.”