You can get all those details here. People overlook that and we go into this tournament with everything to gain.
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Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland were thrown in with world champions Germany, Poland – who the Republic faced in qualifying – and Ukraine.
Ireland opens against Sweden on June 13 at the Stade de France, and plays its last group game against Italy on June 22 in Lille.
When is the draw and where can I watch it? Italy should really be in Pot 1.
“The rankings can vary and change a bit but we know they’re [Belgium] are a very decent side, they’ve world class players in their team and Italy are Italy, of course, and then we follow up with Sweden too but they’re games to look forward to and that’s the most important thing”. I have not come across either of those two teams in my global management before.
Joachim Löw, Germany manager: “We will concentrate from the very first game”.
Ireland will face Sweden in their opener in Paris, the home of PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Austria and Iceland both looked impressive during qualifiers, and Portugal haven’t been at their best during major tournaments of late, but Group F still looks like it will be Portugal’s to lose.
“It’s been great for the fans to have something to cheer about and I am sure they will travel in numbers to France as well”.
This is what we meant when we said expanding the Euros would let bad teams in, can you believe Northern Ire… wait, they won their group?
The seedings for the draw for the Euro 2016 finals on December 12 are as follows: France, as hosts, have been assigned place A1 in the draw as they will play the opening match in Paris on June 10 next year, leaving five other teams in Pot 1 (top seeds) and six teams in the other pots.
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Belgium coach Marc Wilmots was equally wary, saying: “It’s the most hard opponents we could have”. In many ways it’s a good test for us, we have three Premier League centre-backs in our squad, it’s a good challenge to go against Muller and Lewandowski. He’s never been the clear star of the team, but always the second or third best player.
