27/07/2015
The home nations and the Republic of Ireland have discovered their 2018 World Cup qualifying fates.
England will face old rivals Scotland, while Wales are up against not-really-rivals the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland are going it alone in a group of strangers.
The top team from each group goes through with the eight best second-placed sides playing off. But who else awaits the British and Irish sides in qualifying?
Group F (England and Scotland) Who else is in the group?
England and Scotland fans who follow their teams on the road will be pretty happy with the draw. Short trips to face each other, then mini-breaks to scenic capitals Bratislava and Ljubljana in central Europe and a few days in the sun in Malta as well as seeing the Baltics with Lithuania.
On the pitch, there is no doubt about the biggest threat to England and Scotland.
Slovakia are 'doing a Wales' - they are flying in Euro 2016 qualifying, topping a group with Spain with a 100% record from six games. They have risen to joint 15th in the Fifa world rankings.
There are lots of familiar faces to England in this group.
Slovenia and Lithuania are in the same Euro 2016 qualifying group as the Three Lions. Slovenia are 49th in the world and third in the group, while Lithuania (110th) are fifth. They have been in every one of England's Euro qualifying groups since the 1990s.
Malta (158th) are bottom of Group H with one point.
Both sides will hope they don't struggle in the Maltese heat as much as West Ham, who needed penalties to beat their third best side Birkirkara in the Europa League last week. |