#WorldCupDraw

England’s journey to the World Cup began today as fans, players and pundits came together to find out who their team would meet in #Brazil2014, and Twitter was the place to join the worldwide conversation.

Across the globe, there were 1.7 million Tweets about the World Cup draw in two hours.

 The worldwide peak in conversation came at 5.17 GMT as it was announced that the USA would meet Germany, Ghana and Portugal in Group G at next summer’s tournament.

The term ‘England’ and hashtag #England were mentioned more than 300,000 times during the draw, with the peak in mentions of England coming 5.14pm as they were drawn against Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy in Group D.

As England’s fate was decided, the gasps in offices and pubs around the UK echoed across Twitter.

Manchester City’s (@MCFC) Belgian defender Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany) seemed doubtful of their chances:

But England star Jack Wilshere (@JackWilshere) was more upbeat: 

And Kompany’s Manchester City team-mate Sergio Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) of Argentina, offered a reminder of what can be achieved: 

The world’s most expensive player Gareth Bale (@GarethBale11) picked out a couple of matches to savour in the group stages of the tournament:

Arsenal and Germany playmaker Mezut Ozil (@MesutOzil1088) welcomed the prospect of facing Portugal’s players, including the most followed athlete on the planet Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano): 

Before the draw, former England striker Michael Owen (@TheMichaelOwen) called for World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst (@TheGeoffHurst), who was drawing the final balls, to do England a favour:

But that favour never arrived and a trip to the Brazilian rainforest beckons for England’s first game, against Italy on June 15.

BBC presenter, former England captain and 1986 World Cup Golden Boot winner Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker), believes England have enough to progress to the knockout stages. A nation waits to see: