The two teams, who last met during Euro 2012 qualifying in September 2011, were also drawn with Russian Federation and Slovakia.
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Groupe de la mort – England, Italy, Sweden and Wales would look pretty fatal to Roy Hodgson’s dreams of glory. “Whatever team we got from Pot Four it would have been tough, so we might as well play someone close to home”, said England manager Roy Hodgson.
Their Group B opener will be against Slovakia in Bordeaux on Saturday, June 11th, before travelling to Lens to face England five days later.
Coleman, speaking in Paris ahead of the draw, said: “It is freaky that we were top seeds for the World Cup draw and bottom seeds for this one”.
Once the draw is made the former Liverpool manager and his staff will start putting together plans for the build-up to the tournament.
MORE: Who could Northern Ireland get in the Euro 2016 draw?
The expansion of the tournament means a third-place finish in the group could be good enough to see England through to the knockout stages, but Hodgson will want England to make a statement by finishing top.
England crashed out of the World Cup at the group stages last summer, but they have only lost once since – to reigning European champions Spain – and Hodgson is confident about his team’s chances of doing well next summer. People overlook that and we go into this tournament with everything to gain. “At Euro 2004 he scored a fantastic goal against us, but if you close him down, the rest of team will struggle”.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s team failed to get a single point from its three group games in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.
The opening match of the tournament, on 10 June, will see hosts France play Romania in Group A, which also has Albania and Switzerland.
Northern Ireland have been drawn in Group C alongside Germany, Ukraine and Poland, while the Republic of Ireland have been put in what appears to be the Group of Death with Belgium, Italy and Sweden. The players, too, have shown that on their day they can beat decent sides; and in more than one way.
Ireland qualified for the finals by defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina in a play-off and their coach Martin O’Neill admitted the draw was unforgiving. In a group with Iceland and Hungary, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Austria knocking off Portugal for the top spot in the group.
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The final will be played at the same stadium on July 10.
