Hodgson was in bullish mood insisting he was desperate to get Wales at Euro 2016, after they were drawn against Chris Coleman’s men, Slovakia and Russian Federation.
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Led by Bale, one of the most fearsome forwards in today’s game, Wales qualified for their first major tournament since reaching the 1958 World Cup.
“He wouldn’t have moved to Real Madrid for enormous money if that wasn’t the case”.
Hodgson told BBC Sport: “I feel good about it. There was always a very good chance we would meet one of the home nations”. “Whichever teams we got in that pot would have been tough, so why not have a tough one close to home?”
Security will be a key issue at next summer’s tournament after last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, one of which targeted the Stade de France, but Glenn said the FA would endeavour to avoid the kind of fortress mentality which the England players so resented at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when they were stuck for lengthy periods inside their training base.
“I have a certain experience of that happening and disrupting your plans – Chris has been able to put together a more settled team than us”.
“If we came out of the draw with England, we’d be happy”, Bale is quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. You take what you get, really. “Can’t wait to face England”. Wales open against Slovakia in Bordeaux on June 11, 2016 with a 6pm kick-off, and finish with Russian Federation in Toulouse on June 20, 2016 at 8pm.
I experienced something similar as a player when we played the Republic of Ireland at Euro 88. “There will be plenty of research between now and June and we can find out as much as we can before the campaign”. It’s not very often you get an opportunity to play against England. Three quite iconic places. We nullified their space and any repeat would make things hard for Bale. They made way for other dancers wearing the flags of the 24 teams.
England have won all 10 games in their qualifying campaign, for fans it is for sure an attractive opponent and for us a big challenge.
He added: “When you get to a tournament you’ve got to get it right on the 90 minutes”. That should leave the usual suspects ready to start the tournament proper when the round of 16 gets under way in the last week of June.
“It’s all very well getting results in qualification – we’ve done that for years”.
Russian Federation coach Leonid Slutski would rule out the possibility of any of the four teams making the knockout stage. But we will try to do our best whoever we play. England are the favourites, but any of the teams have a chance of going through.
“It’s a very interesting group with the two other teams”. They may believe they have a chance of beating Ukraine in their second match, but they will up against it when facing a Poland side containing Robert Lewandowski, and world champions Germany.
Back in 1996, when England hosted the tournament, there were only 16 teams in from the start and that was twice the number that had participated in the 1992 competition.
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Slovakia are the dark horses in Group B and Wales can not afford to underestimate them. “It could have been worse”, he said.
