England’s Gareth Southgate warns of dangers in ‘intriguing’ World Cup draw

For Gareth Southgate, the moment of jeopardy at the World Cup draw came when Lothar Matthäus reached for the second ball from pot two. England were already installed in Group B and everybody knew that the former Germany captain could pull out his own nation to make things pretty spicy.

Southgate had to feel scrambled. His mid-afternoon flight from Heathrow on Thursday had been delayed by eight hours, which meant he landed in Doha at 8.30am on Friday, “which was fine because my first meeting wasn’t until nine o’clock,” the England manager said with a smile. Now he could feel a note of real tension. And then it passed because Matthäus unfurled a slip bearing the name of the United States.

Shortly afterwards, the 1990 World Cup winner put Germany in with Spain and, if the Germany manager, Hansi Flick, tried to look impassive from his seat at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, it was certainly a bit of a battle. Danke, Lothar.

Southgate was on the way to another favourable draw, the impression hardening when Iran were revealed as England’s third opponents. The fourth will be Wales, Scotland or Ukraine, depending on what happens in the final European playoff, which is slated for June, although everybody’s thoughts are primarily for an end to Russia’s senseless offensive on Ukraine.

“That game is going to be highly emotional, whoever it is,” Southgate said. “We all know where our thoughts are with Ukraine and we have to see whether they are even able to play or not. And, of course, if it’s one of the British teams we’ve been through that in tournaments recently. They become unique games. Form is totally out of the window.”

Spain and Germany are in with Japan. Argentina, Mexico and Poland will contest Group C. And there