“I don’t base my thinking on what’s happened in the past”.
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“One of the things we will be concerned with will be stopping Gareth Bale and limiting his chances but I would like to think we have one or two players that will occupy Welsh minds in terms of how we stop them”.
Belgium, top of the world rankings, and 2006 World Cup winners Italy await them on June 18 and 22 respectively in Group E.
“We understand the hype but we’re just as excited about playing Russian Federation and Slovakia”, said Hodgson. “We have three games we have to perform in – it is not a case of keeping something back for the next one”, said Coleman. We wouldn’t have had the chance to get back in the game.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment and whatever group we were in, and I’m not being flippant, I think we can beat any team on our day”.
“It suits both teams not to play each other first up”.
UEFA will be asked to switch the 2pm kick-off time of England’s showdown with Wales on June 16.
Add in the team spirit which is so evidently strong among the players, Ireland can go to the finals with genuine hopes of reaching the knockout stage. “I just hope there’s no fear”.
Russian Federation play England in their first game on June 11.
After a shaky start to qualification that saw coach Fabio Capello leave, CSKA Moscow manager Leonid Slutsky took charge of the national team on a part-time basis while still managing his club. “The pressure is always on England to do better at tournaments”.
Nevertheless, Ireland showed they could compete with the very best at global level when they took four points off Germany during qualifying, a very respectable 1-1 draw away being followed by a stunning 1-0 victory in Dublin in October thanks to a Shane Long strike.
Similarly to Belgium, they can be considered dark horses and part of the chasing pack but a semi-final place would represent a good tournament for the Azzurri.
“We’re going to put it together as quickly as possible”.
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.
Manager: Antonio Conte is the man in charge of Italy and is considered to be one of the game’s brightest young managers, guiding Juventus to three consecutive Serie A titles during his time in charge of the Old Lady. “Austria is also a team that has been improving lately and has great players, like David Alaba, Christian Fuchs and Marko Arnautovic”.
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“Belgium are a great team with outstanding players”, Italy coach Antonio Conte said, while Belgium coach Marc Wilmots was equally wary, saying “it’s the most hard opponents we could have”.
