In 32-team World Cups gone by, a group featuring Croatia, Ghana and Panama would have looked favourable for England.
However, FIFA’s decision to expand the tournament to 48 nations means that Thomas Tuchel’s side have the right to feel somewhat unlucky to have landed a group that has the potential to be thorny.
Of course, they are still overwhelming favourites to win Group L, but must start well when they face Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday as their campaign finally gets under way after warm-up wins over New Zealand and Costa Rica in Florida.
Make it out of the group and they will be five victories away from potentially becoming world champions for the first time since 1966, but how much of an obstacle are the three teams standing between England and the knockout stages?
Croatia - June 17, Dallas
England beat Croatia during the group stage of Euro 2004 when a certain Igor Tudor was among the opposition goalscorers in what was the first chapter of the Three Lions’ most storied rivalry since the turn of the century.
The two teams have met a further eight times since that day. In denying England a place at Euro 2008 and then reaching the final of the 2018 World Cup at their expense in Moscow, the Croats can claim to have caused plenty of heartache for fans of a nation whose population is 15 times larger.
Zlatko Dalic’s team are ranked 11th in the world but a golden generation is retiring one by one and leaving gaps in its wake.
Having qualified at a canter, they’ve lost to Brazil and Belgium lately - a reminder to England that they are beatable. 40-year-old Luka Modric will earn his 199th cap in Dallas.
From Manchester City duo Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic to battle-hardened Ivan Perisic, familiar faces fill the squad of England’s toughest group-stage opponents.
Ghana - June 23, Boston
The Black Stars finished bottom of their qualifying group for the most recent Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) so were not even one of the 24 teams to take part at that tournament in Morocco.
To have qualified for a World Cup that arch-rivals Nigeria did not is thus a monumental source of pride for a nation that won the hearts of the neutrals with their spirited run to the quarter-finals (and almost the semis) at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Ghana sacked manager Otto Addo just 72 days before the tournament and replaced him with Carlos Queiroz, throwing preparations into disarray. Tottenham winger Mohammed Kudus being ruled out through injury did not help matters.
The second group game, on June 23 in Boston, should be a fine occasion. Three of Ghana’s squad were born in England, including, as the FA are all too painfully aware, Manchester City’s London-born star Antoine Semenyo.
While they’ll be out to prove a point, Ghana have found goals hard to come by and ship plenty at the other end. England should win.
Panama - June 27, New Jersey
The mere thought of Panama at a World Cup conjures up memories of Gareth Southgate’s team hammering them 6-1 in the 2018 group stage in Russia - England’s largest-ever margin of victory in a major tournament.
Los Canaleros don’t boast particularly famous names, and trying to appeal to the English by selecting a player named Azarias Londono feels an unorthodox bargaining method for politely asking Tuchel's side to keep the score down - something their head coach genuinely requested to Southgate when the score was 5-0 at half-time in 2018.
But Panama must be taken seriously, particularly by a much-changed XI if England are already through. Qualifying top of the group is important, and while Ghana are ranked 73rd in the world, Panama, impressively, sit 34th.
“We're not going for a selfie,” said their ambitious head coach Thomas Christiansen.
