Australia drawn in Pot Two

Portugal and France have been left unseeded for Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town, while the Qantas Socceroos have been placed in pot two alongside the other three Asian qualifiers as well as New Zealand, the USA, Mexico and Honduras.

Portugal and France have been left unseeded for Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town, while the Qantas Socceroos have been placed in pot two alongside the other three Asian qualifiers as well as New Zealand, the USA, Mexico and Honduras.

France and Portugal have suffered for the fact they needed to go through the playoffs to qualify and find themselves in pot four with the other six unseeded UEFA teams. It means that unless they draw South Africa in their group, they will have to face one of the seven seeded teams in the group stage.

Those teams include Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Germany and Argentina.

The wash-up for Australia is that it could possibly draw both a seeded team and one of France, who were beaten finalists four years ago, or Portugal, a semi-finalist in Germany 2006.

It also means that Australia could also draw an African team, which are expected to perform well in what will be the first World Cup held on African soil.

Pot three contains the five African qualifiers, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Cameroon as well as the three unseeded qualifers from CONMEBOL, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Australia's best case scenario would be to draw host South Africa, a European minnow like Slovenia, Slovakia or Greece, and perhaps Algeria or one of Chile, Uruguay or Paraguay.

A worst case scenario could see it in a group containing Brazil, Italy or Germany, then France or Portugal, followed by one of the stronger African nations.

Pot One: Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Germany, Argentina, South Africa Pot Two: Australia, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras. Pot Three: Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay. Pot Four: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland