Ireland draw Wales in World Cup qualifying

England have not failed to qualify for a World Cup since 1994, though they did miss out on the European Championships in 2008.

The draw for the qualifying groups for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation takes place today, and with Martin O’Neill’s side among the fourth tier of seeds, the path to the tournament could prove hard. It’s never easy going to places like Moldova and Georgia and we know about the quality of Austria, Republic of Ireland and Serbia.

Georgia are in Ireland’s current qualifying group and the team won in Tbilisi at the start of the current campaign.

Speaking on RTÉ Republic of Ireland manager said “there are easier groups but there are more hard groups too”.

“Austria and Wales and Serbia will be happy enough to be in the group”.

There will be seven groups containing six teams, and two groups of five teams. “I’m happy enough to be in the group too”.

England, Slovakia, Scotland, Malta, Lithunia and Slovania have matched up in Group F.

And Northern Ireland landed defending champions Germany, Czech Republic, Norway, Azerbaijan and San Marino.

Following the Republic’s ongoing struggles in their Euro 2016 campaign, Martin O’Neill’s men are in Pot Four for the draw in St Petersburg – alongside the likes of Estonia and the Faroe Islands.

By contrast Wales have only attended a World Cup finals once in their history, in 1958, while Scotland’s last appearance came in 1998, Northern Ireland’s in 1982 and the Republic of Ireland in 2002.