Northern Ireland have a tough task after being drawn in Group C with Germany, Poland and Ukraine.
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With more countries competing at the 2016 European Championship, the draw for the tournament will have an extra eight teams hoping to avoid Germany.
England kick off their campaign in Marseille on Saturday, June 11 against Russian Federation, meet Wales five days later, and end the group against Slovakia in St Etienne on Monday, June 20. Although they must navigate a possible banana skin match with Wales who are a Cinderella team in this competition (Their first appearance in a major footballing tournament in over fifty years).
Other than Germany, Belgium has a hard job to do in the toughest group (E) against Ireland, Sweden and Italy while titleholder Spain faces Turkey, Czech Republic and Croatia (group D).
O’Neill accepts they will have to upset the odds to make an impact in France, but they have already done so by topping their qualifying group.
He was also part of the last Wales team to beat England back in 1984, when local boy Mark Hughes scored on his debut in a 1-0 win at the Racecourse in the last Home International match between the two sides.
“Luckily, it is not the first game”. We know all the strengths of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden.
The Euro 2016 opening match (France Romania) will take place on June 10. England have become notoriously bad “starters” in worldwide tournaments, and if Russian Federation play a tight game that doesn’t overexpose their defense against the likes of Sterling, Chamberlain and Kane – then they have a good chance of getting a draw, or even a win.
Belgium are the clear favorites, but any of Italy, Sweden, or Ireland could finish second or third.
“I’ve actually just had a quick chat with Roy Keane at breakfast and he was offering any help they can give us”. Facing Belgium, for example, will probably ask too much of them:I don’t put much faith in the Federation Internationale de Football Association rankings, as Belgium, who are No 1, were useless at the World Cup; but individually they just have a little bit too much quality for Ireland. “We have to be careful and not be over-confident”.
Two sides from each of the six groups alongside the top four third-placed teams are to advance from the group stage. Loew want to play strong opponents before travelling to the European Championship base camp in Evian-les-Bains on the banks of Lake Geneva.
“If we do well in the Euros, then he is our man for 2018 – and I believe we will do well in the Euros”, Glenn said. But Cristiano Ronaldo won’t complain about Austria, Hungary and Iceland standing in his way of perhaps shining on a big worldwide stage one last time.
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Vicente del Bosque, the coach of Spain, said: “We’ve drawn two teams who played in the same group as the Netherlands and eliminated them, Turkey and Czech Republic”.
