The 2022 World Cup does not officially start on Friday April 1 in Doha, but almost. Eight months before the start of the competition on November 21, the 29 qualified (out of 32) will know their opponents in the group stage. Holders of the title, seeded and placed in the number one hat, the Blues should be relatively spared.
Automatically, France indeed avoids the other residents of the hat of the favorites, namely: Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal (best nations in the FIFA ranking) and Qatar (host country). The remaining big fish are thus sailing in hat 2, with Germany, the Netherlands and Uruguay as scarecrows, even if Mexico, Denmark or Switzerland are still difficult to maneuver. The United States and Croatia, finalists in 2018 but losing momentum, would a priori be the best picks.
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In pot 3, it is the African champions Senegal who act as the team to avoid, with Poland and Serbia (but a group can only contain two European teams). Morocco is also a tricky team. Note that apart from the Europeans, a group can only contain one team per continent.
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Finally in hat 4, the probable presence of Costa Rica (which must get rid of New Zealand in the play-off in June) would make it the only real threat with Cameroon. Not yet qualified, but still in the race, Wales (18th in the FIFA rankings) or Ukraine (27th) and Peru (22nd) could give the Blues a hard time. In any case, we must not declare victory too quickly on the Tricolor side because in the 21st century, only one reigning champion emerged from the group stages of the following World Cup: Brazil in 2006.