The latest international break saw several more teams book their place at the 2022 World Cup, with the likes of Edouard Mendy and Christian Pulisic playing a big role, meaning we are edging closer to having the full picture of what the first-ever winter World Cup will look like.

Below you can find all the information on which Blues helped their nation reach the World Cup and how, as well as everything you need to know about the upcoming group-stage draw and the tournament itself in Qatar...

When is the World Cup draw?

The draw to decide the group line-up for the 2022 World Cup will take place in the Qatari capital Doha tomorrow, Friday 1 April, at 5pm UK time.

A star-studded line-up of former international footballers will conduct the draw, including previous World Cup winners Cafu, Lothar Matthaus and Carli Lloyd, as well as ex-Premier League midfielders Tim Cahill, Jay-Jay Okocha and Jermaine Jenas.

When is the World Cup?

The 2022 World Cup will be played in the winter for the first-ever time, due to the high summer temperatures in the host nation Qatar. The tournament will begin with Qatar’s opening group fixture on Monday 21 November, and conclude with the final on Sunday 18 December.

As a result of the World Cup being played in the winter, the Premier League will take a break following the round of games on the weekend of 12-13 November, and return for the traditional Boxing Day fixtures.

Which Chelsea players have qualified for the World Cup?

Belgium (Michy Batshuayi, Romelu Lukaku) – Strikers Lukaku and Batshuayi both missed the November international break through injury, when Belgium confirmed their place at the World Cup with a 3-1 home win over Estonia to top Group E. Their qualification had been in little doubt, though, as Lukaku scored five goals to become the group’s top scorer and help Belgium complete an undefeated campaign with six wins from eight games.

Brazil (Thiago Silva) – Brazil qualified comfortably with six games to spare, when Thiago Silva captained them to a 1-0 win over Colombia back in November. They are currently top of the table, six points clear of second-placed Argentina with a 21-point margin for automatic qualification after a dominant campaign, in which they are undefeated and have conceded just five goals from their 17 matches so far. They have one remaining fixture, yet to be scheduled, after their home game against Argentina was suspended due to Covid.

Croatia (Mateo Kovacic) – Kovacic also missed the decisive game of qualifying, as a late own goal gave them a win over Russia which saw them leapfrog their opponents to top the group by one point in the last game. The midfielder remains a key player, though, having started all but one of Croatia’s qualifiers he was eligible for, having missed the last two through injury and one more due to suspension.

Denmark (Andreas Christensen) – The Danes became the second team to qualify for the World Cup, one day after Germany, with a narrow 1-0 home win over Austria in October. Christensen missed just one game, playing every minute of the other nine, as they ended four points clear at the top of their group with nine wins from 10 games.

England (Ben Chilwell, Conor Gallagher, Reece James, Mason Mount) – All four Blues were involved for the highest-scoring team in the group stage of European qualification, including Mount and Chilwell contributing to that figure of 39 goals in 10 games. The Three Lions officially booked their place at the World Cup in their last game – Gallagher’s senior international debut – with an emphatic 10-0 win over San Marino.

France (N’Golo Kante) – With the holders no longer guaranteed the chance to defend their title, the world champions had to qualify through the group stage. The French did so with a game to spare, though, when Kante made his first start since Euro 2020 due to injury in the decisive 8-0 thrashing of Kazakhstan, at the Stade de France on the anniversary of the 2015 Paris terror attacks.

Germany (Kai Havertz, Antonio Rudiger, Timo Werner) – The Germans became the first team to qualify for the World Cup in a dominant campaign, as they ended up nine points clear at the top of Group J. They sealed their place in October, when Havertz opened the scoring and Timo Werner hit a brace in a 4-0 win away in North Macedonia.

Ghana (Baba Rahman) – Baba missed Ghana’s dramatic last match through injury, as they qualified via the away goals rule following a 1-1 draw with Nigeria over two legs in the final of Africa’s knock-out qualification format. However, he had started five of their six games as they topped their group to reach the last stage.

Senegal (Edouard Mendy) – There was a sense of deja vu as Mendy became Senegal’s hero in their final qualification match. Having fought back from a 1-0 first-leg defeat to Egypt in a rematch of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations final, it went to penalties again. Just as in the previous meeting in January, it was Senegal who triumphed, with Mendy saving the decisive spot kick to send his country to the World Cup.

Spain (Cesar Azpilicueta) – Group B went down to the last game as the top two sides faced each other, Azpilicueta playing the full 90 minutes as Spain emerged victorious with a 1-0 win over Sweden in Seville. That meant Spain topped the group by four points, having gone into the final two games trailing Sweden by two.

USA (Christian Pulisic) – The Americans qualified in a tense finale to the CONCACAF league format. Following a 0-0 draw with Mexico, the 5-1 win over Panama – inspired by Pulisic’s first international hat-trick – effectively sealed their qualification, although a 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica in the USA’s last game meant they finished level on points with their opponents, going through in third place thanks to their superior goal difference.

Full list of qualified teams

Africa: Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia

Asia: Iran, Japan, Qatar (hosts), Saudi Arabia, South Korea

Europe: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland

North America, Central America and the Caribbean: Canada, Mexico, USA

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay

Who else can still join them?

Scotland (Billy Gilmour) – Scotland comfortably qualified for the European play-offs, albeit some way behind group winners Denmark. However, their play-off semi-final at home against Ukraine has been postponed until June as a result of the Russian invasion of that country.

Wales (Ethan Ampadu) – The Welsh missed out on automatic qualification, finishing five points behind Belgium, but are still in contention after a 2-1 win over Austria in the European play-off semi-finals, with Ampadu featuring throughout. They will next play the winner of Scotland’s delayed game against Ukraine for a place at the World Cup, with those matches postponed until June due to the war in Ukraine.

Inter-continental play-offs – The last two places up for grabs at the 2022 World Cup are in the inter-continental play-offs, which will be decided by a pair of one-off ties in mid-June. The first will see the Oceanic winners New Zealand travel to Costa Rica, who finished fourth in the CONCACAF region. The other will see South America’s fifth-placed side Peru visit the winners of the last qualification game in Asia, between the UAE and Australia on 7 June.

How will the draw work?

The 32 teams have been seeded into four pots for the draw to determine the eight groups, based on their latest FIFA world ranking. Pot One contains the seven highest-ranked teams to have qualified, plus hosts Qatar, who are already guaranteed to be the top seeded team in Group A.

Pot Four contains the five lowest-ranked sides to have made it to the World Cup, plus the three places which will be taken up by the Inter-Continental Play-off winners and final European qualifiers when they are determined in June.

The teams will be drawn in order of seeding, with all countries in Pot One allocated a group, followed by Pot Two and so on. The sides are also seeded by region, meaning no counties from the same continent can face each other in the group stage, with the exception of Europe, where no more than two UEFA teams can be drawn in the same group.

Pot One: Qatar (hosts), Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, England, France, Portugal, Spain

Pot Two: Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA

Pot Three: Iran, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, Tunisia

Pot Four: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, winner of Costa Rica v New Zealand, winner of UAE/Australia v Peru, winner of Wales v Scotland/Ukraine