Euro 2016: England To Face Wales In Group B

Italy have been drawn in the “Group of Death” with the Azzurri set to face Belgium, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland at Euro 2016.

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.

Wales, whose only previous major tournament appearance came at the 1958 World Cup, face Slovakia in their opening match before locking horns with England, marking the 112th meeting between the two countries.

And defending champions Spain have been drawn in a potentially tricky Group D with Croatia, Turkey and the Czech Republic. “It is something to look forward to for the fans but it couldn’t be tougher. I remember the feeling when we missed out – it was disgusting”.

He said: “It was nearly inevitable we’d get England and there’s not that many easy groups”.

Spain will begin their bid for an unprecedented third successive European Championship title against Czech Republic while hosts France will open the 2016 tournament against Romania after the draw was made on Saturday.

“We have had a number of our players not available through injury”.

“I pleased it’s not the first game, it’s new territory for us but at least we can have a little taste of it because we know if England hit all the right notes they have the capacity to beat anybody”. However, Group A, with two obvious qualifiers, looks as boring as it is predictable. Wales are a very good team and Chris has done a fantastic job – I have been very impressed with them.

“England are one of the best teams”. As for Slovakia, Adam Nemec was the team’s top scorer with three goals, which says much about the attacking prowess, and while Russian Federation has improved since Leonid Slutsky replaced Fabio Capello at the helm, it remains a functional rather than flamboyant side.

He told Sky: “We have seven players in the Premier League”. It’s the same in all the groups: different styles of play and different styles of teams. Sweden aren’t unbeatable by any means, which is why they were in the third pot and had to go to the third-place playoff to get to the final tournament.

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.

Ireland qualified for the finals by defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina in a playoff and their coach Martin O’Neill admitted the draw was unforgiving.