Hosts France open Euro 2016 with a Group A match against Romania on June 10 in the draw made by UEFA yesterday while defending champions Spain are in a group with Croatia.
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“And Sweden know about these competitions, they’ve got so much experience and seem to know how to qualify and get through”. As for the Albanians, no team qualified with fewer goals (the side only actually scored seven times, as was awarded a 3-0 win for its abandoned clash with Serbia). England are the favourites, but any of the teams have a chance of going through.
“If we see progress, and I’m very confident that we will, this will make us feel that Roy is the best person to take this young team forward and really fire at the next two tournaments”.
All of the focus will be on England’s showdown in Lens on June 16 and it will be the first time Hodgson has ever faced Wales in his managerial career. Whoever wins Group B will be certain of facing a team that finished third in another group.
However, as a neutral, it was hard to get excited about a group with two of the most boring sides during the qualification campaign, Romania and Albania. Why not have a tough one close to home?
“There are a lot of positives we take into the tournament”.
“Russia and Slovakia will be interesting”.
“They are two newcomers on my CV but we respect them and it will be a question of doing plenty of research now”.
“We go with the challenge to win a third consecutive European Championship”.
Germany’s Oliver Bierhoff says he is pleased with his side’s Euro 2016 draw and pleased to have avoided Italy. As Gareth Bale underlined while recently recounting the story of how the English FA tried to poach him for the Three Lions, pulling on the red jersey means everything to the world’s most expensive player.
In September, with Bayern Munich’s David Alaba playing in a more attacking midfield role, Austria won 4-1 away to Sweden in a performance full of speed and menace.
Ireland drew 1-1 in Zilina in 2010 and 0-0 in Dublin a year later under Giovanni Trapattoni en route to reaching the Euro 2012 finals. Admittedly, the prospect of England meeting Wales in a “Battle of Britain” contest is an intriguing one. “Certainly the British public will be excited by it”, Roy Hodgson quite righly pointed out.
GROUP B: England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia.
BBC pundit and former Wales striker John Hartson: “I wanted that game, it’s great for the supporters and for us on TV”.
“It suits both teams not to play each other first up”.
Manager: Marc Wilmots – as a player he won both the UEFA Cup with Schalke in 1997 and the European Super Cup with Mechelen in 1988.
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“We’ve been waiting for this moment and whatever group we were in, and I’m not being flippant, I think we can beat any team on our day”.
