England Kick-Off Times For World Cup Group Games Confirmed

The kick-off times for England's World Cup group games have been confirmed.

The draw for the 2022 tournament in Qatar was made yesterday (Friday 1 April), with England landing in Group B alongside USA, Iran and either Wales, Scotland or Ukraine - with Wales due to face the winner of Scotland vs Ukraine in a qualifying match.

The Three Lions will get their campaign under way on Monday 21 November - the first day of the tournament - with a match against Iran, which will kick-off at 1pm UK time.

In tournaments gone by, this would mean taking a half-day, or working an extra hour or two in return for an extended lunch break.

But as we all know, these are not normal times, and this is not a normal World Cup - what with it taking place in winter and all - so if you're working from home, it may just be a case of sticking it on the TV while you 'work'.

England's next match is a much tastier sounding prospect, with Gareth Southgate's side set to take on USA on Friday 25 November at 7pm UK time. Delicious.

Then the final group game is the following Tuesday 29 November, again kicking off at 7pm UK time, which really is great news given the tie could well be against Wales or Scotland.

Sore heads across England and Wales/Scotland are scheduled for the morning of Wednesday 30 November.

Of course, what lies ahead of that for England will depend on the outcome of those group games. On the face of it though, England appear to have got a pretty decent draw, especially when you consider we could have been pitted against the likes of Germany, Croatia and Uruguay.

Southgate isn't getting complacent though, despite the seemingly favourable group.

He said: "The advantage of being in pot one based on our seeding is that most of the draws we've had … you avoid the biggest teams.

"There's obviously then some tricky ties and this is one of those groups where you're looking and thinking 'some of these are potentially trickier than just the rankings'. That's always a danger.

"It's intriguing isn't it, because we've never played Iran. And then the States … I've met [US coach] Gregg [Berhalter] a lot recently, so we've had some good chats and he's got them vastly improved.

"The third game is going to be a highly emotional game whoever it is. We all know where our thoughts are with Ukraine and we have to see whether 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. Form is totally out of the window."

Well, to use an expression I don't think I've ever used before - roll on winter.