England’s World Cup group match kick-off times have been confirmed.
The draw for the 2022 tournament in Qatar was made yesterday (Friday April 1), with England landing in Group B alongside the United States, Iran and Wales, Scotland or Ukraine – Wales set to face Scotland winner against Ukraine in a qualifying match. .
The Three Lions kick off their campaign on Monday November 21 – the first day of the tournament – with a game against Iran, which kicks off at 1pm UK time.
In past tournaments, this has meant taking half a day or working an extra hour or two in exchange for an extended lunch break.
But as we all know, these aren’t normal times, and this isn’t a normal World Cup – with it taking place in winter and all – so if you’re working from home it could just be stick it to the TV while you “work”.
England’s next match is a much tastier prospect, with Gareth Southgate’s side set to face the United States on Friday November 25 at 7pm UK time. Delicious.
Then the final group match will be on the following Tuesday 29th November, again at 7pm UK time, which is really great news considering the tie could well be against Wales or England. ‘Scotland.
Headaches across England and Wales/Scotland are forecast for the morning of Wednesday November 30.
Of course, what awaits England will depend on the outcome of these group games. On the face of it, England seem to have gotten a pretty decent draw, especially considering we could have been up against Germany, Croatia and Uruguay.
Southgate does not become complacent, despite the seemingly supportive group.
He said: “The advantage of being in the first pot based on our ranking is that most of the draws we’ve had… you avoid the bigger teams.
“There are obviously some tricky connections and this is one of those groups where you look and think ‘some of them are potentially trickier than just ranking’. That’s always a danger.
“It’s intriguing, isn’t it, because we’ve never played Iran. And then the United States…I met [US coach] Gregg [Berhalter] a lot recently, so we had good discussions and he improved them considerably.
“Game 3 is going to be a very emotional game, whatever it is. We all know where our thoughts are with Ukraine and we have to see if 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. So they become unique games, really. The form is totally out of the window.”
Well, to use an expression I don’t think I’ve ever used before – long live winter.
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