' WALES 2018 WORLD CUP GROUP OPPONENTS '

Wales have been drawn in Group D

Wales
Austria
Serbia
Republic of Ireland
Moldova
Georgia



Full Draw :

Group A :

Holland
France
Sweden
Bulgaria
Belarus
Luxembourg


Group B :

Portugal
Switzerland
Hungary
Faroe Islands
Latvia
Andorra


Group C :

Germany
Czech Republic
Northern Ireland
Norway
Azerbaijan
San Marino


Group D :

Wales
Austria
Serbia
Republic of Ireland
Moldova
Georgia


Group E :

Romania
Denmark
Poland
Montenegro
Armenia
Kazakhstan


Group F :

England
Slovakia
Scotland
Slovenia
Lithuania
Malta


Group G :

Spain
Italy
Albania
Israel
Macedonia
Liechtenstein


Group H :

Belgium
Bosnia
Greece
Estonia
Cyprus


Group I :

Croatia
Iceland
Ukraine
Turkey
Finland

Few things I noticed - Group H is a rerun of the 2016 euros with Belgium, Bosnia and Cyprus + neighbors Greece.

Group of death looks like Group A this time - Thank god Wales did not get drawn in that group. But we still have to do all the work to Qualify.

Lets get the Euro's out of the way first.

Blooobirds Forever !!!

It's not the best group we could have had but it is far from the worst. I will take it. Serbia is a potentially tricky one but it's about time we shoved one on them. I think we are better than Austria who are arguably the best second seeds we could have got. Would prefer them to Iceland! Ireland isn't ideal but I think we can get the better of them over two games and I think they will help us by taking points off other teams at home especially. Then the minnow nations are potential banana skins but we all know there's no easy games in football again so everyone will face the same challenge with them. Overall, I'm satisfied. The absolute key was avoiding France and Italy.

It's not the best group we could have had but it is far from the worst. I will take it. Serbia is a potentially tricky one but it's about time we shoved one on them. I think we are better than Austria who are arguably the best second seeds we could have got. Would prefer them to Iceland! Ireland isn't ideal but I think we can get the better of them over two games and I think they will help us by taking points off other teams at home especially. Then the minnow nations are potential banana skins but we all know there's no easy games in football again so everyone will face the same challenge with them. Overall, I'm satisfied. The absolute key was avoiding France and Italy.

I'm a bit worried by Serbia. The second World Cup campaign in a row that we've drawn them. Knowing our luck, that was always likely to happen. Their U20s recently won the World Cup in New Zealand as well, and they'll have blooded a few of those youngsters by the time the qualifying starts, surely. But it's a strange one, they've got good players, but they're completely failing to perform at the moment. Ivanović (Chelsea), Kolarov (Man City), Nastastić (Schalke), Tošić (CSKA Moscow), Matić (Chelsea), Tadić (Southampton), Marković (Liverpool) and Mitrović (just signed for Newcastle for £13m and was top scorer in the Belgian Pro League last season) are all very good players and many of them are Premier League players so we know all about them. But they're on -2 points in their Euro qualifying group (they were deducted three points only the other day for what happened between them and Albania), which is a poor return considering the quality they have. I suppose it all depends on whether they turn up or not.

Austria are second seeds primarily because they're top of their Euro qualifying group, which sounds impressive, but then you see that they're ahead of both Sweden and Russia. Don't get me wrong, they deserve credit and respect, but I think us being ahead of both Belgium and Bosnia, who I reckon are better sides than Sweden and Russia, is more impressive. We did beat them the last time we played them (a 2-1 friendly win in February 2013 in Swansea), but that was over two years ago and things have obviously changed since then. But I think we should be more concerned about Serbia than Austria, personally.

As for Ireland, we should beat them twice without much trouble. The Irish are cock-a-hoop about who they've drawn, and you can understand them, especially seeing as they could've drawn someone like Spain or Germany again, but I expect us to deal with them comfortably. The same goes for Moldova and Georgia, though it's typical that we've drawn Georgia who are quite clearly the strongest side in pot 6.

It should be a very interesting group. I reckon it's between us, Serbia and Austria for the top spot.