Gareth Southgate names three teams he wants England to avoid in World Cup draw

Sir Gareth Southgate has picked out Japan, Colombia and Scotland as three teams England may want to avoid in the group-stage draw for the 2026 World Cup.

The eyes of the world will be on Washington DC’s Kennedy Center on Friday, where those nations that have safely qualified will discover their fate for next year’s bumper 48-team tournament.

The glitzy ceremony is set to get underway at 17:00 GMT and will be presented by supermodel Heidi Klum, comedy icon Kevin Hart and actor Danny Ramirez.

The USA, Canada and Mexico, the three host nations, have automatically been placed into Pot 1, while those countries forced to qualify through the six available play-off pathways find themselves in Pot 4.

Thomas Tuchel’s England cruised through qualifying with a flawless record and join the hosts in Pot 1, along with bookmakers’ favourites Spain and reigning champions Argentina, among others.

Fans of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales will also be watching on with interest after their sides secured passage to the play-offs, which take place next March.

Southgate, of course, led England into the last World Cup in Qatar, where they were ultimately eliminated at the quarter-final stage by France, the eventual runners-up.

That quarter-final exit in 2022 means the Three Lions will have gone 60 years without winning a major trophy come next summer, stretching back to Sir Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick heroics against West Germany in 1966.

There are hopes that Southgate’s successor in the dugout, Tuchel, can turn England’s fortunes around and bring home the coveted prize at long last.

‘Well, I have to confess that I probably won’t watch it,’ Southgate admitted to Heart Breakfast while previewing Friday’s draw.

‘But yeah, those things are strange.

‘Like, I have found it strange since I left. I haven’t been to a match this season.’

Rules state that no more than two UEFA nations can be placed in the same group in the draw. Outside of UEFA, no two teams from the same confederation can be grouped together.

With that in mind, Southgate name-checked Japan and Colombia as two possible banana skins in Pot 2 that could feasibly cause England problems next summer.

The former England boss believes Scotland could also prove a tricky opponent for Tuchel’s men given the intense and historic rivalry between the two nations.

Pushed to name three teams he would ideally like England to avoid in the draw, Southgate replied: ‘I think someone like Japan would be a very tough game.

‘Colombia, who we played in 2018, but if you’re thinking about the amount of Colombians that will go to those games in the States or Mexico, what an atmosphere that will be!”

‘For England, I think we had a pretty good record against Scotland, but there’s always that thing that if you lose to Scotland that [Kenny] Dalglish and [Graeme] Souness and [Sir Alex] Ferguson will be going on about it for decades!’

Southgate has found it ‘strange’ being away from the unique pressures – both good and bad – that come with being head coach of the England national team.

Asked if he had managed to watch much of England’s qualifying campaign under Tuchel, Southgate replied: ‘I’ve seen a couple of the later ones, but I was abroad for a couple of the earlier ones.

‘That’s a strange feeling because I know I’ve got to stay out the way of the team as well.’

Southgate intends to give Tuchel’s squad as much ‘space’ as possible ahead of the tournament and has no plans to make the trip across the pond.

‘I don’t think I will, no,’ he explained.

‘What would be the purpose? I’m not going to do any media during the tournament.

Again, I don’t think I should be talking about the team, definitely not in this next tournament.

‘Maybe in years to come, but I think I’ve got to give them space. But of course, I work with so many of the players and so many of the staff that, you know, you want them to go and do well.

‘My role now is to keep out of the way!’

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