“But that is why we are here, we deserve to be here and I think the tournament will be a fantastic one”. “The first game against Ireland is going to be really, really interesting because the victor of that game has a really good chance to go further”.
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“We know a fair bit about Poland anyway and we obviously know the threat of (Robert) Lewandowski”.
Hodgson is also likely to line up warm-up matches against strong opposition – one of the games will be at Wembley but it is likely that another will be elsewhere in England, most probably Old Trafford. “And hopefully when we get to that stage, which is our third game, we’ll have a real prize at the end of that game”.
England made it to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 when Hodgson had been in charge for a matter of weeks, but the quality of the football was poor, and the World Cup in Brazil a year ago ended in disappointment with elimination at the group stage. It is about getting out of that group.
“But Roy was sitting beside me and we thought that there was a possibility that the Portugal group beside us that maybe…when we were down to fifty-fifty, you were still looking at sides that, well, you might have chosen”.
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. “There are three games to play and we can’t get caught up with just playing England”.
Italy coach Antonio Conte acknowledged that Belgium are among the favourites at Euro 2016 after they were drawn together in a most hard Group E along with Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.
The two teams will duly meet in Lens, an hour from Calais, in Group B on June 16.
Wales were drawn alongside the Three Lions in Group B at Saturday’s Euro 2016 draw. “It means we must be fully concentrated from the first game”, Loew said.
Ireland open against Sweden on June 13, face Belgium on June 18 before finishing against Italy on June 22.
Although O’Neill wanted to avoid Italy, Ireland held them scoreless in London 18 months ago and have a World Cup win, in 1994, on their CV.
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Coleman conceded there would now be huge pressure on Wales to get a result in their first match against Slovakia if they want to qualify.
