Roy Hodgson’s side avoided any of the potential unsafe second seeds in the draw and should have little trouble seeing off Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta, while Scotland will be confident of sealing the runners-up spot.
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The nine top seeds in Europe – including Wales and England – will first be drawn into a group.
Defending World Cup winners Germany have been put in Group C and they should have no real problems qualifying as they go up against the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Norway, Azerbaijan and San Marino.
“Group A, with France, Sweden and the Netherlands and Group G, with Italy and Spain, are interesting and extremely exciting”.
The winners of each group will automatically qualify for the tournament.
The Euro 2016 qualification campaign is nowhere near its conclusion yet but Scotland fans are already looking ahead to another crack at making the World Cup following Saturday’s draw.
He said: & It; #x201c ‘s the fitting that may seize the imagination because Britain-Scotland accessories go a lengthy, long way ever sold back and there’s been manya ferocious encounter over the years.
In their Euro 2016 group it hasn’t been easy going so far.
Barring any shock injury or slump, Wayne Rooney will likely be England’s record goalscorer by the time he faces Scotland again and will be a senior figure in a squad that is filled with emerging talent who will be battling to justify the hype.
“I don’t say that flippantly because we’re in amongst some good teams”.
“We know Slovenia and Malta are very keen on English football, while Slovakia from the second pot, although they have had a good spell, maybe do not have the allure of France and Italy, who may cause us more problems”. “The whole of Scotland and England will look forward to the games”.
Roy Hodgson was also positive about the draw, stating “The Scotland fixture really excite people, the recent friendly matches showed that, and we have got recent experience of what the atmosphere will be like”.
Northern Ireland will face world champions Germany in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
Richard Lewis watched the unnecessarily long draw for the qualifying stages of the World Cup, so you didn’t have to…
“It’s a hard group”.
“It’s a different type of pressure but it’s a pressure that we’ve wanted and we’ve earned and I’ve been saying to Welsh public “don’t play it down, expect us to do good things” and then we have to live up to those expectations”. Of the five teams that they will need to overcome, only their old foes, the Scots should cause them concern and then mainly because of the bitter rivalry that can creep into their contests.
“And I think they will visit places that they will enjoy”.
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Meanwhile, there was a blow for Oceania favorite New Zealand as it will have to beat the fifth-best side in South America if it comes through regional qualifying in the inter-continental playoffs.
