Martin O’Neill bemoans Italy’s lofty ranking

The teams met at UEFA EURO 2012 in Poznan – their first UEFA European Championship final tournament encounter – Cesare Prandelli’s Italy overcoming Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland 2-0 thanks to goals from Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli.

Speaking on the eve of the finals draw in Paris, four weeks to the day after the attacks that left 130 dead, Patrick Kanner, minister for youth and sport in Francois Hollande’s government, said that France had a responsibility to host a great tournament.

Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland were thrown in with world champions Germany, Poland – who the Republic faced in qualifying – and Ukraine.

The Republic of Ireland will end their group campaign against the Azzurri in Lile on June 22nd, four days after playing Belgium in Bordeaux.

‘Each time the draw seemed to go against us when it was 50-50 if we could get any easier team. The contrast between Italy’s efficiency and the free-flowing football from Belgium’s new crop of players promises one of the most interesting games of the tournament. The manager says he is happy with the options he has been shown, but not overly concerned as long as he and the players are able to get to the cities where Ireland’s games will be staged relatively easily. The 24 teams have been placed into six groups, and we’ve already begun circling matchups on our calendar (England-Wales, anyone?). ‘I don’t know why Italy are in pot two.

‘So it’s a hard one for us but we look forward to it’.

The World Cup winners’ clash with neighbor Poland on June 16 promises to be one of the highlights of the competition’s group stage.

‘They also have a very hard group so we’ll have to console each other!’ We actually won our group, we didn’t come through a play-off.

However, the kit chosen by Northern Ireland for their first worldwide tournament since 1986 hasn’t gone down well with the fans. “It’s a tough group but we expected that”, he said. Then I see pretty equal teams with Sweden, us and Ireland.