Once a nation has qualified for football's World Cup, the next big challenge is the draw.
Every country hopes for a favourable one.
And it seems Belgium and England have received a very favourable one, indeed.
But the Belgians, in particular, will have their eyes set on advancing far beyond the group stage.
The Red Devils reached the quarterfinals of the last World Cup and the last European Championships, powered by what has been deemed a golden generation of star players.
They are undefeated in their last 18 matches, dating back to 2016, and even a cursory glance at their squad reveals a list of well-known players from some of the world's best club teams.
In the striking positions alone, the Belgians can choose from the likes of Chelsea's Eden Hazard , Manchester United's Romelu Lukaku and one of the stars of Italy's Serie A competition, Dries Mertens.
Behind them in midfield, Belgium has players such as Tottenham's Mousa Dembele and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne,who has set up more goals than any other player in the English Premier League each of the past two seasons.
The team's riches are such that coach Roberto Martinez felt he could afford to leave another of Serie A's biggest stars, Roma's Radja Nainggolan, off the squad.
Nainggolan's omission has drawn criticism, but Martinez says Belgium's style and talent means even a player like Nainggolan cannot be accommodated.
"In the last two years, the team has worked, in an offensive way, in a very specific system, in a very specific manner. In the case of Radja, we all know that he's got a very, very important role at his club level, and I don't feel that we can give him that in the national team."
Behind the midfield will be a defence marshalled by Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
It features players such as Tottenham's Toby Alderweireld (all-der-WYE-reld)) and Jan Vertonghen, Barcelona's Thomas Vermaelen and captain Vincent Kompany.
Despite being the captain of both Belgium and Premier League winner Manchester City, Kompany has slipped some over the past couple of years because of injury and has battled a groin injury ahead of this tournament.
But Martinez is giving him until the last second -- 24 hours before Belgium's opening match against Panama on June the 19th ((AEST)) -- to be fit.
He says Kompany is still a crucial player.
"Vinny Kompany has been a leader, has been working extremely hard in the camp for the Red Devils. He performed in a fantastic manner while he was on the pitch against Portugal, so the fresh performance of Vinny Kompany and his leadership is essential for us."
Belgium's final group-stage match, against England in Kaliningrad on the 29th of June, probably will determine who wins Group G.
That brings us to England, a team whose World Cup fortunes and misfortunes alike could fill several books.
Recent returns in major tournaments for the 1966 world champions have not been great.
The most a generation that featured players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Wayne Rooney could get was a World Cup quarterfinal.
At the last World Cup, England did not make it past the group stage, and, at the European Championships two years ago, it suffered an embarrassing elimination in the Round of 16 by Iceland.
Now, the team's fortunes have been handed to a new generation, under the tutelage of a relatively new coach in Gareth Southgate.
Southgate acknowledges he is in charge of a different, certainly more modestly billed, England team than previous ones.
However, he insists the young men are the right ones for the job.
"We're not picking young players or inexperienced players because they're young and we're trying to buy ourselves time. We're picking young players because we believe they're the best in their positions for the way that we want to play and the style that we want to play."
England's 23-man squad is the only squad at the tournament where every player in the squad plays his club football in the country he is representing.
But most players in the English Premier League are not from England -- in fact, only around one-third of the players in the world's biggest domestic club competition are English.
It is something Southgate is acutely aware of, but he says he is making the best of the situation.
"That's where we are at the moment as a country, we pick from 33 per cent of the league. It's quite a unique situation for us as an England squad. But I think there's an excitement about the route we're going. I think we're starting to make a connection back with the fans. We're rebuilding confidence in the team."
The strength of this England team is probably in its attack, with weapons like striker and captain Harry Kane, his Tottenham teammate Delle Ali and Manchester City's Raheem Sterling.
England starts its campaign against Tunisia in Vologograd on June the 19th.
The Tunisians are making their first World Cup appearance since 2006 and their fifth overall.
They have never made it past the group stage.
Coach Nabil Maaloul will try to defy expectations with a squad mainly consisting of players who play their club football in the Arab world, combined with a sprinkling of European-based players, most based in France.
Maaloul knows his team has been handed a rough draw, but he says his team knows what to do -- and is motivated.
"Of course, on paper, it's Belgium and England who look like they will advance from the group stages, but we will try to defend our chances to the maximum, try to win our games by playing in our own way and controlling the match. We want to honour Tunisian and Arab football by winning our matches."
But Maaloul says the draw is not as difficult as it could have been for this team representing a Muslim-majority country.
He says being drawn in Group G, which starts later than most other groups, means the Tunisians play their first match further away from the end of Ramadan, the holy month where Muslims do not eat nor drink in daylight hours.
Thus, he says, the team will be in better shape for its first game against England.
In recent warm-up matches, after sundown, goalkeeper Mouez Hassen has faked an injury during the game to stop play so the players could break their fasts.
Sadly not fake, though, is the injury suffered in April by star player Youssef Msakni.
A torn cruciate ligament in one of his knees meaning he will miss the tournament.
And then there is Panama.
One of only two countries making their first World Cup appearances -- the other is Iceland -- Panama needed a victory over Costa Rica on the final day of qualifying for the Los Canaleros, or Canal Men, to qualify.
The victory sent Honduras to a playoff against Australia and ensured the United States did not qualify.
Like Tunisia, the Panamanians boast few well-known players.
And their lead-up for the tournament has been poor, with just one win in their last six matches -- against lowly Trinidad and Tobago.
But they do have some World Cup experience through their coach, veteran Colombian Hernan Dario Gomez.
He coached Ecuador at the 2002 World Cup and his native country at the 1998 tournament, where Colombia lost to England in the group stage.
Both he and the little Central American country of 4 million are hoping for better luck against the same opposition 20 years later.
