We spoke to Tord as he boarded the plane for Leipzig, excited that the World Cup was about to come a significant step closer.

"We’re all looking forward to it," he told us from the departure lounge. "It was really good news about the seedings.

"To be honest we were always fairly confident that we would get the seeding but maybe we were a little bit pleasantly surprised that we came out as the second strongest seeds.

"In terms of the draw, we really don’t mind who we get although it’s probably fair to say we will not be too upset if we don’t draw Holland.

"In the other pot, we would tend to think that Australia and the USA are the strongest teams we could get. Of course we all know that Australia would be very keen to play us and we know from the Premier League that they have some very strong players.

"From the other European teams, I suppose us drawing Sweden would be interesting form the point of view of me and Sven [coming from Sweden] and also the fact that we played them in Japan.

"It’s true that we do not have a good record against Sweden but it’s also true that that must change some time."

With a multitude of potential permutations for Friday’s draw, how much do Tord and the scouts know about our potential opponents?

"We have strong files on almost every team in the hat," he revealed. "Perhaps only our files on some of the African teams could be improved.

"But we have the African Nations Cup coming up in January so we can use that to take a closer look at our opponents, once we know who they are. Either Sven or me might go out there to watch a couple of games in person."

Stay logged on to TheFA.com for all the news and exclusive reaction from Leipzig on Friday.