March 31, 2022 - The 2022 World Cup draw will be held on Friday, April 1, at 18:00 Croatia time. A look at who the Vatreni could face in the group stage. 

The last spots at the 2022 World Cup are slowly filling up. Earlier this week, we learned about seven new national teams that will compete in Qatar. Portugal and Poland have qualified from Europe, while Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, and Cameroon have passed through the African qualifiers.

The draw for the World Cup will be held on Friday, April 1, in Doha, and Croatia will be in the second strongest group (Pot 2), which means that Croatia will avoid some powerful national teams such as Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, Uruguay and Denmark in Qatar.

The first strong group is the world's football superpowers - Brazil, France, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, England, and Portugal. The absolute best choice for Croatia would be to draw the host Qatar.

National teams such as the African champion Senegal, Serbia, and Poland threaten the third strong group. Finally, the last fourth strong group includes Canada, Cameroon, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, and three other national teams that have yet to qualify for the World Cup.

Teams from the same confederation cannot be in the same group except those from Europe because 13 European teams are at the World Cup.

The World Cup is played from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar.

"I have no big wishes. Our goal is to pass the group. I want to avoid France, and it would be better to draw Asian teams than European ones. But I am optimistic, and I believe in us no matter which team we draw," coach Zlatko Dalić said after Croatia played two friendly games in Doha against Slovenia and Bulgaria, drawing to Slovenia 1:1 and beating Bulgaria 2:1. 

"Congratulations to the boys on the victory that ended our successful seven-day stay in Doha, even though it was difficult to win, much harder than expected. It is good that we returned to the game after 0:1; all in all, we must be satisfied. The main goal was "team-building," but also the result. Everything turned out well; we kept our place in the second strong group. We will certainly make a more detailed analysis of these two games and prepare for June," Dalić said. 

The 2022 World Cup draw will be held on Friday at 18:00 Croatia time on HRT's Second Program.

Source: HRT

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