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The trophy makes an appearance in UAE en route to Russia 2018

Who will stay up and who will go down in the Premier League relegation fight?

Despite his advancing years, in footballing terms, Cristiano Ronaldo should be ready to hit the ground running as Portugal aim to claim their fist World Cup trophy to place alongside the European Championships silverware they won two years ago in France.

With the curtain falling on Spain’s golden generation, expect a number of Julen Lopetegui’s stars to give their all to go out on a high.

Iran booked their place with relative ease, staying undefeated as they topped a qualifying group that included South Korea. It is hard to imagine they will find the going quite so easy in Russia.

Morocco came to global attention when they stunned England, Poland and Portugal to win their group in 1986, and they have also caused a few upsets since.

Write off Tunisia at your peril as they were the first Arab team to win a World Cup match against Mexico 3-1 on their debut in 1978 and followed it up a goalless draw against West Germany at that tournament.

After a group stage exit at the last World Cup followed by a Last 16 defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, expectations of England are at an all-time low.

With headline-grabber and self-styled superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic out of the reckoning, Sweden have plodded along quite happily under the radar since they stunned Italy in their qualification play-off to book their place in Russia.

A five-second glance at their team sheet is enough scare the living daylights out of any opponent.

Mexico have fielded so many different line-ups in recent games it is fair to say even manager Juan Carlos Osorio does not know who will start in their opening game against Germany.

South Korea were berated back home after a poor 2014 campaign saw them return from Brazil with a solitary point from three matches against Russia, Algeria and Belgium.