Roy Hodgson’s England side are in the pot of top seeds for the draw and have a 50-50 chance of being drawn in the same group as one of Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland – who are all guaranteed to avoid each other as they are in the pot of six bottom seeds.
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Although Spain is the only team to have won the competition consecutively, and won nine out of 10 games in qualifying, coach Vicente del Bosque remains cautious.
Dyke said: “We had a one in two chance of either drawing Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland”.
“We have to get out of the group. Nothing has changed. We now know who we’ve got in the draw, that’s all that’s changed”.
All the focus may be on Wales being drawn in the same group as England, but the opportunity to get one over on Russian Federation will also inspire Coleman to seek revenge for the controversial and agonising Euro 2004 play-off defeat. It couldn’t get tougher – these are games to look forward for the fans but it could not be tougher for us.
Sweden vs. Belgium looks like a mouth-watering final match in that group.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal will take on Iceland, Austria and Hungary in Group F.
“We have England, they are a great team”.
England will first play Russian Federation in Marseille on June 11 and there is likely to be a heavy security presence after serious outbreaks of fan violence there when England played Tunisia during the 1998 World Cup. “Wales are very well organised, have a team spirit and very strong spine”. “I think Wales is the sexiest of the three to us because of two or three really quality players playing for Wales”. They then head to Lyon to face Ukraine on June 16 before finishing their Group C campaign against world champions Germany at the Parc de Princes in Paris on June 21.
It will be Wales’ third game against Slovakia, having been hammered 5-1 at the Millennium Stadium in the 2008 Euro qualifier before exacting revenge with a superb 5-2 win in Trnava – Craig Bellamy in exhilarating form, scoring twice.
Hosts France play the tournament’s curtain raiser on June 10 against Group A opponents Romania.
Infantino’s boss, UEFA president Michel Platini, was barred from attending the proceedings after he failed Friday to have his 90-day provisional ban from football lifted.
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While Platini being excluded from the five candidates for FIFA presidency, Infantino is among them to replace Blatter in the top job in world football.
