World Cup draw 2018: Winners and losers now the dust has settled in Moscow

Who is happy and who is sad after the balls have been drawn?

The World Cup draw is done and we are one step closer to the actual tournament kicking off next June.

All the teams can go off and do their homework now, with Russia's coach even going as far as admitting he has "never seen" any of his group rivals play.

But who will come out of today's draw at the Kremlin happiest with all that has happened? And who will be crying into their borscht before the long flight home?

WINNERS

Russia

The hosts might not even need some “Korea 2002” refereeing to advance from Group A, having landed the weakest draw in the whole competition according to average world ranking (and also just plain common sense).

They open the tournament with the thriller against Saudi Arabia and then play Egypt in Saint Petersburg. Those two games will likely decide their fate before the tough finale against group favourites Uruguay.

Even the easiest group in the whole competition won’t be a cakewalk for Russia, the lowest-ranked team playing in the tournament, but they have a better chance than they might have done. Generally that is a good thing for a World Cup.

England

The key for England was to avoid any especially difficult fixtures. Those come in two different forms, either the toughest games from a sporting perspective – facing strong nations like Brazil – or getting drawn with nations that England have a historic hang-up over, such as Germany, Argentina or even Iceland.

Gareth Southgate has swerved both of those situations, ending up with Belgium as the top seeded side. The Belgians have only beaten England once, in 1936, and while they’re a completely different footballing nation now there is not necessarily a fear factor with playing against the Red Devils – even though they are loaded with talent.

Panama and Tunisia represent slight unknowns for England. Or they do now, at least.

Southgate’s staff will scout the pair thoroughly to try and avoid any slip-ups, but overall they will be quietly pleased with how things turned out in the Kremlin.

LOSERS

Opening ceremony fans

Some people love nothing more than the fireworks, interpretive dance and mid-level popstars that you get at the opening ceremonies of major sporting events.

But if you were looking forward to Pitbull emerging from a Russian doll for a duet before a belting opening fixture then unfortunately you might be disappointed.

Russia are the worst-ever hosts of the World Cup, in terms of official Fifa world rankings, so whoever they were facing was always going to be a bit of a stinker. Pairing them with Saudi Arabia, though, is not what the excited neutral was looking for. In fact, it’s officially the worst game of the tournament.

This guy always pops up at these events (Getty)

On one hand, it’s better for the tournament if the hosts have some success. On the other, nobody is going to want to watch many Group A games.

Spain and Portugal

The 2016 European champions and the 2012 European champions have been bundled into a fascinating-looking Group B. Carlos Queiroz, the coach of Iran, faces his homeland and Morocco face their neighbours to the north but the headline fixture is, of course, Portugal vs Spain in Sochi.

Coming on the second night of the competition, this will be the tournament’s first ding-dong fixture.

Julen Lopetegui is Spain head coach, but managed Porto previously (Getty)

It will likely be a cautious affair given neither will want to cede control of the group to their Iberian rival but whoever finishes second in that group faces the nightmare of a second-round clash with (almost certainly) Uruguay.

The reward for beating two-time world champions Uruguay would likely be a quarter-final with France before (and this is projecting wildly at by now) Brazil or England.

If you get past that lot then you still have a World Cup final to deal with so it’s best finishing top of an intriguing Group B