Town’s stars discover their World Cup fate

Aaron Mooy’s Australia will face Denmark’s Jonas Lossl and Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen alongside France and Peru.

The two nations will square up in the second round of games of the group, on Thursday June 21 in the Southeastern Russian city of Samara.

Meanwhile, Switzerland fullback Florent Hadergjonaj, currently on a season-long loan from Ingolstadt 04, finds his nation in Group E alongside Brazil, Costa Rica and Serbia.

England were handed a favourable draw for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after being chosen to face Belgium, Panama and Tunisia in Group G.

After avoiding Argentina, Brazil and Germany, England were the penultimate team picked from Pot 2 by Diego Maradona in the draw ceremony in the Kremlin’s State Palace.

Gareth Southgate’s side will face Tunisia in their opening game in Volgograd on June 18, a repeat of their first game in the 1998 World Cup in France, when goals from Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes gave England a 2-0 win in Marseille.

They will then travel to Nizhny Novgorod on June 24 to take on Panama, with their final group fixture against Belgium on June 28 in Kaliningrad.

England have never lost to Belgium at a major tournament and have only lost one of their 21 matches against them.

Former England captain Shearer said: “I don’t want to say it’s a good group or a bad group because I’ve heard it so many times over the years.

“We’ve got six days of rest after our first game, which if they are worried about travel, that shouldn’t be an issue.”

The World Cup 2018 draw: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran France, Australia, Peru, Denmark Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan