World Cup victor Germany faces Robert Lewandowski’s Poland, Ukraine and Northern Ireland in Group C, while England has its work cut out against local rival Wales and Russian Federation in Group B, which also contains Slovakia.
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“What we want is people who are signed up to the holistic development of England, so you can not run an England senior team without an interest in the Under-16s, 17s, and 18s”, Glenn said.
He thinks reaching the semi-finals is a realistic prospect, and sees no reason England can not challenge for the title. They wouldn’t even play us in a friendly when I was playing for Wales.
They will then meet Ukraine on June 16 before taking on World champions Germany on June 21.
“We all know about the strength of Zlatan”, said Conte. Also, he said, it was “half- expected to draw a home nation with three of the six teams in pot four”.
“It was more to do with the hype surrounding the game”.
And the Welsh play as a team, not as individuals, whereas for England it is the other way around.
“A hard but great group for Belgium”, said Manchester City and Belgium skipper Vincent Kompany on Twitter. “I just hope there’s no fear”.
“(Leonid) Slutsky has done extremely well since taking over and has got them winning again. They have a good goalkeeper in Wayne Hennessey.
“(However), our tournament experience is not quite so good. England are one of the best teams, and we looked at it and would have wanted to avoid it, but we look forward to it.
Surprisingly, his manager, Marc Wilmots, was no more circumspect, reacting to a question about whether this might be the tournament’s “group of death”, with the observation that: “It’s a tough draw: nothing more”.
Professional courtesy From the managers, the reaction was a mix of professional courtesy towards the group’s fourth seeds, with various references to its tradition, spirit, physical strength and “British” style of play. England are the favourites, but any of the teams have a chance of going through. That was against a better side, you’d struggle to pick the best England side now.
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke insists no decision will be made on a new contract for England boss Roy Hodgson until after next summer’s European Championship.
England will begin the tournament against Russian Federation in Marseille on June 11.
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“We will be up against it but they will be up against it too, if we perform like we know we can it will be a tough game that’s for sure”.
