Hodgson: Vardy a strong contender for Euro 2016 squad

And while Coleman is confident of making an impact in France next summer, he would prefer to face rivals England later on in the tournament, labelling the two countries being drawn together as a “distraction”.

England are joined in the draw by Wales and Northern Ireland, the former at a major tournament for the first time in 58 years and the latter at a European Championship for the first time, the BBC reports.

“Sweden is a game to look forward to, so let’s go for it. Sweden are not a one man team, they were quite strong in qualifying but (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic is a top class player”.

England, who enjoyed a flawless record in qualification, will meet neighbours Wales – a match-up which Chris Coleman admitted he was eager to avoid given the media “circus” which could surround the encounter.

England made it to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 when Hodgson had been in charge for a matter of weeks, but the quality of the football was poor, and the World Cup in Brazil a year ago ended in disappointment with elimination at the group stage.

Host France escaped with a relatively straightforward group in the 2016 European Championship after being drawn on Saturday with newcomer Albania, Romania, and Switzerland.

Northern Ireland open against Poland in Nice on June 12, face Ukraine four days later in Lyon and take on Germany at the Parc de Princes on June 21.

Group E has top-ranked team Belgium, Italy, Ireland and Sweden. Slovakia had some great results, and Russian Federation are Russia.

“The Romanians we know far less about”.

“I will take what comes”, the England manager said. “There will be plenty of research between now and June and we can find out as much as we can before the campaign”.

“But I think it is achievable to get out of the group – we won our qualifying group to get here so that should give us a lot of self-belief”. But Wales winger Gareth Bale perhaps has the edge on them after scoring seven goals in qualifying.

The authorities have committed to retaining fanzones in each of the 10 host cities across France, as well as increasing security checks around stadiums.

The finals start on Friday June 10, 2016, with the final taking place at the Stade de France on Sunday, July 10, 2016.

[England is] the one we said we didn’t really want, you know.

Vicente del Bosque, the coach of Spain, said: “We’ve drawn two teams who played in the same group as the Netherlands and eliminated them, Turkey and Czech Republic”. It would be a great match to be involved in if we were to get England.