The British teams meet on Thursday, June 16, in Lens in an afternoon kick-off for their second match of Group B, with Hodgson’s side playing Russian Federation first in Marseille on June 11 and Slovakia the final group opponents in St Etienne on Monday, June 20.
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FA chief executive Martin Glenn said ahead of the draw that Hodgson is “our man” for the World Cup in 2018, but another poor performance at a major championship could change the thinking.
“It is something to look forward to for the fans but it couldn’t be tougher”, said O’Neill, who will be hoping to get enough points on the board before facing Italy in Lille in the last group game.
Broadcasters were successful in persuading Federation Internationale de Football Association to bring forward England’s clash with Italy at the World Cup in 2014 from 2am to 11pm.
“It will be a damn sight more frustrating when I’ve got the 23 players, or 25 and really counting on to go to France, and then I’m seeing them disappear through injury – or I’m learning that players I’m hoping will recover from injury might not do so”.
As soon as Wales manager, Chris Coleman, said on the eve of the draw that he would prefer to avoid Roy Hodgson’s England, perhaps the die was cast.
Tell us what you think of the draw – can one of England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland win Euro 2016? “We’ve got some good young, exciting players”.
“Despite having coached over 100 matches at this level with three teams [Finland, Switzerland and England], I have never come up against Russia, Slovakia or Wales”, he said.
They could have had few real complaints though from the remaining two selections, with Russian Federation and Slovakia by no means easy rivals but it could have been far worse.
“They have made tremendous progress over the last five or six years and played two big qualifying matches against us”, said Loew, adding that Bayern Munich’s Poland striker Robert Lewandowski is their biggest threat.
The Northern Ireland boss said: “They (Germany) were maybe the pot one team that I didn’t want but, having been drawn in it and got my head around it, I think it’s a fantastic game for us”.
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Northern Ireland will face Germany, Poland and Ukraine in Group C, while the Republic of Ireland will be up against Belgium, Italy and Sweden in Group E. “We have a lot of respect for Wales”. We’ll be hopeful of getting through that group.
