Find out more about England's 2022 World Cup games and opponents

Written by:

Nicholas Veevers

The Three Lions learned their World Cup group opponents on Friday...find out more about who we'll play...

England learned of their group stage opponents at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar during Friday’s draw in Doha.

Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate was in the audience to see his team joined in Group B by USA, Iran and one of Wales, Scotland or Ukraine, and gave his thoughts on the draw shortly afterwards.

We know that England will play Iran on the opening day of the competition on Monday 21 November at the Khalifa International Stadium (1pm GMT), before tackling USA on Friday 25 November at the Al Bayt Stadium (7pm GMT) and then one of Wales, Scotland or Ukraine on Tuesday 29 November at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium (7pm GMT).

But what do we know about our group stage opponents? Find out more below…

USA

Coach: Gregg Berhalter

Qualified from: Third in CONCACAF

Qualifying top scorer: Christian Pulisic (Chelsea)

FIFA World Cup best performance: third place (1930, Uruguay)

Last encounter: England 3-0 USA, 16 November 2018, Wembley Stadium

The last time these two nations were paired in a World Cup came in South Africa in 2010, when they met in their opening game of the group stages. A Steven Gerrard goal in the first half after just four minutes put Fabio Capello’s side in front, but the States hit back just before half time when Clint Dempsey’s shot evaded the grasp of Robert Green to seal a draw.

USA will arrive in Qatar on the back of a campaign which saw them finish behind Canada and Costa Rica in the CONCACAF qualification group. They’ve been regulars in the World Cup Finals in recent years, qualifying for every tournament from 1990 until 2014, but they missed out on the 2018 competition in Russia.

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Iran

Coach: Dragan Skocic

Qualified from: First in AFC qualifying group

Qualifying top scorer: Mehdi Taremi (Porto)

FIFA World Cup best performance: group stage (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018)

Last encounter: N/A

There will be a first for England this year, as these two nations have never met at senior level previously. Iran are no strangers to the World Cup Finals though, having qualified on six occasions in total and for the last two competitions in 2014 and 2018.

They were the first team from the Asian Football Confederation to qualify for the World Cup, after beating Iraq in their play-off game in Tehran. Prior to that, they had something of a disruptive qualifying campaign, which started under the charge of former Belgium boss Marc Wilmots before he was dismissed and replaced by Croatian Dragan Skocic, who oversaw an upturn in fortunes and eventually finished top of their group.

Wales, Scotland or Ukraine

The final member of Group B will be decided later this year, with Wales set to play the winners of the Scotland v Ukraine play-off from the UEFA European Qualifiers.

Either way, the prospect of a World Cup game between England and either Wales or Scotland will whet the appetite of supporters but with Ukraine also in with a shout when they meet Scotland in June, it's still all to play for.

Those hoping to attend the 2022 FIFA World Cup can access tickets through FIFA. If you want to support the Three Lions within the England allocation, then you need to register as a My England Football member and then join the England Supporters' Travel Club.

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