Euro 2016: England drawn in same group as Wales

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland both were handed nightmare draws as Northern Ireland will face world champions Germany, Poland and Ukraine while the Republic was drawn with Italy, Belgium and Sweden.

The Republic were placed against Belgium, Sweden and Italy in Group E, prompting manager Martin O’Neill to quip “I thought I was coming here to enjoy the draw and I’m not so sure that is the case any more”. I think we will be equally well prepared for each of the team we play. But we will do a lot of analysis so that in June we will be ready to play.

“Sweden, Ireland and Italy are all on the same level”.

“I think that Belgium are an excellent side”.

The former non-league strike broke a Premier League record as he scored goals in 11 consecutive games, and Hodgson revealed that it is not just his goal-scoring exploits that have got him on the national team’s radar.

Sweden’s 3-2 triumph in the 1950 FIFA World Cup group stage sent them through at Italy’s expense.

“We’re amongst the best sides there”. Our first game will be against Zlatan in his home city (Paris), it promises to be quite an occasion. “It’ll be two British teams going at it and it will be an exciting game. It would be extraordinary”, said Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque, who can look forward to a rematch with Croatia after narrowly beating them at Euro 2012.

“We will take time out to study opposition players so that by the time of the games we know everything about them”.

Keane duly delivered a verbal volley of expletives, cursing David Trezeguet, the man who had sentenced Republic of Ireland to the Group of Death. There is no such thing. Poland and Germany each won one game during their qualifying campaign battles for the tournament in France next year. The first match against Italy will be the toughest. But the Italians will not be happy to have been drawn against us either.

MARC WILMOTS SAYS Belgium must approach Euro 2016 with complete confidence if they are to reach their target of a semi-final spot.

You can buy tickets to Ireland’s March friendlies here.

Now Loew and his team have to find a way to forget everything that has happened in the past few weeks and concentrate on what Loew calls “a new era”, meaning to be successful in France and two years later at the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.

“It is the most important match for us”. “We go with the challenge to win a third consecutive European Championship”.

He also suggested being a top seed wasn’t overly beneficial, saying: “There’s no advantage being in pot one other than avoiding teams like Spain and Germany”.

“We’ve been friends for a long time”.

Roy Hodgson has warned that it will be a mistake to view Wales as a one-man team when England come up against Gareth Bale and Co at Euro 2016 in June following Saturday’s finals draw in Paris.