The FIFA World Cup draw for next year's tournament takes place in the early hours of December 2 - but what are Australia's dream and nightmare results?
Thirty-two teams will be drawn into four pots, which were formerly sorted into one top seeded pot, with the rest done by confederation. This is no longer the case, and all four pots are now sorted by world ranking - only one team from any continent can be in the same group, except for Europe, which can have two. Let's take a look at each of them:
Pot 1: Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France
Best case: There's one clear outlier here - and that's the hosts, who are only in top pot due to the tournament being in Russia. By FIFA ranking, they're actually the lowest of the entire 32-team field. Other than that, Portugal and Belgium have shown a propensity to muddle their way through the group stages, rather than blowing opponents off the park.
Worst case: Germany or Brazil. Both are in red-hot form, and both have wins against Australia in the 2006 and 2010 tournaments, respectively.
Pot 2: Spain, Peru, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Croatia
Best case: Peru are ranked 10th in the world, but looked uninspiring over two legs against New Zealand. Switzerland were just as sluggish against Northern Ireland in their play-off tie, and Australia could grind out a result against either of these teams. But just for fun, the most amusing result would be England, who despite being a vastly better team, are really, really good at losing to Australia in competitive sport - the fallout in London if we knocked them off would be a joy to behold.
Worst case: Spain, but I doubt you needed to be told that. Somehow they're now eighth in the world and dropped out of the top pot due to Russia's placement, and I don't think anyone would enjoy being flogged by them again, as Australia were in 2014. Colombia and Croatia are also excellent teams, which we'd do well to avoid.
Pot 3: Denmark, Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Iran (cannot be in our group)
Best case: Tunisia and Costa Rica don't boast particularly well-known squads, and lack the firepower of a couple of the other teams in this group. Sweden ground out a dull 1-0 aggregate win over Italy across 180 minutes last week, and could well be there for the taking as well.
Worst case: Denmark are far and away the best team in this pot. Even with Egypt and Senegal boasting some individual stars in their ranks, the Danes are head and shoulders above the rest of this pot.
Dream group: Russia, Peru, Tunisia
As fun as England would be, Peru seem to be by far the the weakest team in the second pot. Russia is an obvious choice, and Tunisia shade a couple of other contenders in Pot 3.
Best of a tough bunch: Peru are Australia's ideal draw in Pot 2. Photo: AP
Nightmare group: Brazil, Spain, Denmark
The reason for Brazil and not Germany is that due to FIFA rules, only two European teams can be drawn into one group - if we were to get Germany and Spain, Denmark would not be possible. Both the Spaniards and Danes seem to be easily the toughest draw in their pots, and Brazil are only a touch less difficult to get past than Germany - and will have more to prove.
The FIFA World Cup draw will begin at 2am, Saturday December 2 (AEDT).
