World Cup 2018 Schedule of Dates, Locations and Preview After the Draw

Hosts Russia will kick off the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the opening Group A clash against Saudi Arabia on Thursday, June 14, at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.

After Friday's draw in Moscow, all 32 teams for the tournament now know who they will have to get past in order to make it to the knockout rounds, which will begin on Saturday, June 30.

FIFA.com provided the eight groups in full, as did the FIFA World Cup Twitter account:

The Sun's Duncan Wright has broken down dates for each group match.

See below for the tournament's key dates:

Group Stage: June 14 to June 28

Last 16: June 30 to July 3

Quarter-finals: July 6 and July 7

Semi-final 1: July 10 

Semi-final 2: July 11 

Third place play-off: July 14

Final: July 15 

There will be 64 matches played in total in 12 venues located in 11 cities:

Moscow: Luzhniki Stadium (81,000 capacity) and Otkrytiye Arena (45,360)

Saint Petersburg: Krestovsky Stadium (56,196)

Kaliningrad: Kaliningrad Stadium (35,000)

Kazan: Kazan Arena (45,379)

Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny Novgorod Stadium (45,000)

Samara: Cosmos Arena (44,918)

Volgograd: Volgograd Arena (45,568)

Saransk: Mordovia Arena (44,442)

Rostov-on-Don: Rostov Arena (45,000)

Sochi: Fisht Olympic Stadium (47,659)

Yekaterinburg: Ekaterinburg Arena (35,696)

Defending champions Germany are among the favourites for the tournament after breezing through UEFA qualifying. However, their path to success won't be an easy one after being drawn in a tough looking Group F alongside Sweden, Mexico and Korea Republic.

Joachim Low's side were the only European team to finish the campaign with a perfect record of 10 wins from 10 games, and they scored 43 goals in the process while conceding just four.

For Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe, Die Mannschaft are the team to beat, but a resurgent Brazil are not too far behind:

Redemption will be the watchword for the Brazilians after they were so devastatingly humiliated on home soil at the semi-final stage of the 2014 edition of the tournament.

The 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany in Belo Horizonte will never be forgotten, but manager Tite has developed a side capable of making it a historic footnote by lifting the World Cup in Russia.

Led by Neymar, Brazil dominated CONMEBOL qualifying and ended up topping the group by 10 points from Uruguay.

The joy and flair that is characteristic of Brazilian football is back, and an attack that includes Neymar, Gabriel Jesus and Philippe Coutinho will be hard to stop next summer.

VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/Getty Images

Spain are another side who will be looking to erase the memory of the 2014 World Cup when their incredible run of three major tournament wins in a row—UEFA Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012—was brought to a halt by ejection at the group stage.

Spain's toughest task in Group B will be overcoming UEFA Euro 2016 winners Portugal.

Meanwhile, France and Argentina both boast phenomenal squads but have yet to prove they can produce football that reflects the quality on show. Les Bleus will likely fancy their chance of escaping a group featuring Australia, Peru and Denmark.

Gareth Southgate has a huge job on his hands to guide England to a respectable performance after abject humiliation at both Euro 2016 and the 2014 World Cup.

BEN STANSALL/Getty Images

The first objective for the Three Lions will be to produce some decent performances to get them through a group including Belgium, Tunisia and Panama.

But it is no guarantee given England have won just one World Cup match since the 2006 tournament in Germany.