2022 World Cup draw: Simulation shows how the group stage might look

The 2022 FIFA World Cup has never felt closer.

With the group stage draw just a matter of days away and the final qualifying games starting to wrap up, football fans are slowly starting to realise that the competition’s first ever winter edition is almost upon us.

Sure, we’ve got the conclusion of the Premier League, Champions League and more, as well as the first-half of the 2022/23 season, still to come, but don’t pretend as though you’re not already looking forward to Qatar.

And that will especially be the case once FIFA reveal how the group stages will take shape because that suddenly allows supporters to map how certain countries might make it to the final.

With no knockout stage draws or third-place shenanigans like the Euros, once the group stage draw is confirmed, you know exactly how your nation might be taking each step towards global domination.

However, even though the draw will be taking place on Friday, there are still plenty of narrative threads that need tying up first and we’re not just talking about the qualifiers that will be played in the mean time.

Even when the balls are being rustled around at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, we’ll still only know who 29 of the 32 competitors are – and that’s before we mention how all the pots are organised.

But fear not, dear reader, because we know that you’re feeling impatient and want to get ahead of the game, so allow us to assuage restlessness and give you an idea of how the 2022 World Cup might shape up.

That’s because The Sun ran a simulator that predicted how the group stage draw might look, motoring through the remaining qualifiers and forecasting how the 32 teams might be postured.

Naturally, it is only that, a simulator, but it’s nevertheless