Euro 2016: Roy Hodgson and Chris Coleman happy to have Russia and Slovakia

Group B looks a good draw for both England and Wales

THE happy smiles on the faces of Roy Hodgson and Chris Coleman revealed the truth about the draw for the Euro 2016 tournament.

 

Never mind a mouth-watering Battle of Britain between neighbours England and Wales, who have been squaring up to each other since 1879 and whose players meet up and down the Premier League every weekend.
Both managers were simply delighted to land up in Group B with Slovakia and Russia as the other two opponents.
It allows them to feel equally optimistic about progress to the knock-out stages without fear that their meeting in the second group game in Lens is a win-or-bust showdown.
That’s partly because of the expanded nature of this tournament, with four third-placed teams reaching the last 16 alongside the group winners and runners-up.

Just as significant is that, on current form, England and Wales should be superior to their rivals from Eastern Europe.
They avoided far tougher teams like Italy, Austria and Poland. In the case of Wales, they also missed world champions Germany, hosts France, as well as Spain.
“I feel good about it,” confessed Hodgson, whose young developing team qualifi ed with an impressive 100 per cent record.
“We are very pleased Wales have done so well, and whichever of the teams we got in that pot would be tough. Why not have a tough one close to home?”

It was far easier to say that, surveying what was a distinctly kinder draw for England than the one they landed in the group stages of their last tournament, the 2014 World Cup.

An immediate thought among many English sports fans was plain enough.

Here is a chance for England to get revenge for the disastrous defeat at home to Wales in the Rugby World Cup a couple of months ago.

Many Welshmen had the oval ball game in mind, too.

Former striker John Hartson was swift to say: “We beat them in the rugby, now we have to try to do it in the football.”

In the build-up to the draw, Wales manager Coleman had said he would prefer to avoid England because of the hype that might surround a Battle of Britain.

Afterwards, he was clearly content, saying: “It will be a great game between two good teams.

"When you get to a tournament it’s all about the 90 minutes on the day, and you just have to get that right.”

 

Wales begin with a match against Slovakia, captained by Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel.

They are an inconsistent team without star quality.

The opener for England is against Russia in the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

The last English national team to play there was the rugby union side who beat Australia in a World Cup quarter-final.

Russia struggled to qualify, dispensing with former England manager Fabio Capello along the way.

His successor Hodgson will say all the right things during the next few months about respect for opponents, but there is no doubt this was a favourable luck of the draw last night. Not since 1958 have three British nations and the Republic competed in the same tournament.

Then, Northern Ireland and Wales went the furthest – both reaching the quarter-finals.

Northern Ireland drew with reigning world champions West Germany, while Wales were only knocked out by Brazil, the goal scored by a 17-year-old Pele.

Yesterday’s draw pitted Northern Ireland against Germany once again, along with Poland and Ukraine.

There is every possibility they could progress to the knock-out stage.

Whether the same can be said for the Republic of Ireland is less certain.

Martin O’Neill’s team qualifi ed via the play-offs and the reward is the toughest looking of all six groups.

They face Belgium, currently ranked the No1 team in the world, and also heavyweights Italy.

Then there is Sweden, inspired by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“It couldn’t be tougher,” said O’Neill. “I haven’t really enjoyed this draw. Effectively, we have two topranking teams in our group.”