It did not take too long for the 2018 World Cup draw to throw up a fascinating tie as the top seeds and 2010 winners Spain, were drawn with neigbours Portugal which should see Cristiano Ronaldo get some interesting treatment from the Madridistas towards the end of the season!
They're joined by Morocco and Iran in Group B.
And what of Eng-ger-land?! They will fancy a better outcome than 2014 when they finished bottom of a group topped by Costa Rica and followed by Uruguay and Italy.
Manager Gareth Southgate will go head-to-head with former Everton boss Roberto Martinez whose Belgian side are top seeds in Group G and, on paper, look to have two easy touches in 2011 Africa Cup of Nations champions Tunisia and tournament debutants Panama where they declared a national holiday on their qualification.
But as John Giles will probably tell us on Off The Ball next Thursday; matches aren't won on paper!
Holders Germany are never short on confidence and they will be pretty pleased with themselves after being drawn in Group F with fellow Europeans Sweden, Mexico and South Korea.
There may be some concern in the host country who are in Group A with Mo Salah's Egypt, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, a tough-ish draw for Russia considering how poor their squad is at present.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here they are! The groups for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia! 🇷🇺🙌<br><br>Which game are you most looking forward to?! ðŸ˜<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldCupDraw?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldCupDraw</a> <a href="https://t.co/CYBTaqkgpF">pic.twitter.com/CYBTaqkgpF</a></p>— #WorldCupDraw 🆠(@FIFAWorldCup) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/936625697795248128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
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One of the more intriguing quartet of nations is in Group D with Argentina the top seeds, struggling for form of late, thrown in with England-slayers Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria.
The Vikings might fancy themselves to get out of that group.
1998 winners France will be backed by many to win next year and have been given a great chance to get out of Group C and into the last-16 pretty much unscathed as they gear up to take on Australia, Peru and Denmark.
The Samba Boys and record five-time champs Brazil are joint favourites with the bookies and should have no major issues when they take on Switzerland, Costa Rica and the team that topped Ireland's qualifier group Serbia.
And to wrap it all up there's another really interesting draw in Group H with Poland as top seeds pitted against Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
Football fans around the world will spend the next few months predicting which nations will win what group games, identifying dark horses, checking various players' club form and throwing darts at wallcharts but as with every World Cup we know that it never really goes to plan and the summer, no doubt, will provide us with shocks and surprises, drama, intrigue and memories that will last us a lifetime!
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