Euro 2016 draw: England must heed lessons of the past

Hodgson happy after favourable draw but tougher tasks lie just around the corner

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Let the circus begin, and the ringmasters run for cover. Wales find themselves in England’s tent in Euro 2016, so Roy Hodgson will tire quickly of hearing about hwyl, hymns and arias, and homegrown heroes from the valleys.

At least the din created by domestic conjecture will drown out any more interventions by the FA’s resident clown, chairman Greg Dyke. His insistence England “are gonna win” in France next summer was so patently presumptuous it was either mischievously antagonistic or wilfully ignorant.

The draw has been kind, but we have been here before. Fate can be cruel and capricious. England possess emerging players of the quality of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli but are potentially vulnerable to true world class, in the form of Gareth Bale. His familiarity cannot dilute his threat or underplay the potency of his ambition.

Hodgson spoke predictably of respect and research. He hailed Welsh team spirit, and the strength of their spine. His opposite number, Chris Coleman, cut to the chase, despite previously indicating he dreaded the distraction of a Severn Bridge derby.

“It is about that 90 minutes, and you’ve got to get it right” he said. “It does not matter who you play.” Such strident common sense was as good a way as any of launching the countdown to 2pm, on Thursday 16 June, at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens. The dimensions of the challenge are obvious, and the scrutiny will inevitably intensify in months to come.

Routemaps in major tournaments tend to have unexpected diversions and hidden potholes, but there is every chance the home nations in Group B can survive the initial cull of what promises to be a memorable Championship, which draws an unprecedented British audience.

The group winners will face a third-placed team, possibly Northern Ireland if they can salvage something from what is likely to be a shoot-out with Ukraine in Group C. Should they progress deeper into the tournament, they are not seeded to meet Germany until the final.

Holders Spain, who will be wearing a shirt which looks as if it stained by regurgitated pizza, or hosts France, who have the talent without suggesting convincingly they have the requisite nerve to withstand the pressures of public expectation, are likely to be lurking in the semi-finals.

The runners up in Group B – and Wales have enough about them to be confident of eking out sufficient insurance with assertive performances against Slovakia and Russia – will have an immediate appointment with the second placed team in the group featuring Portugal, Austria, Iceland and Hungary.

Hodgson does not need to win the tournament to save his job, or secure his legacy. The briefing about his future from FA chairman Martin Glenn was relatively benign; he seems only to avoid the sort of implosion suffered by Stuart Lancaster in rugby’s World Cup to end his career at the 2018 World Cup.

He was in no mood to offer hostages to fortune, remarking in that amiable manner of his that his only experience of Lens was with the Swedish Olympic team in the late 1980s. “It was a great atmosphere and it is interesting we’ll play at Marseille and St Etienne as well” he said. “Three quite iconic places. Now it’s a question of making certain we produce on the field.”

It would, of course, been better had football been allowed to speak more eloquently for itself during the draw itself last evening. Yet anyone accustomed to bureaucratic pomp and circumstance could have predicted its confection of superficial sycophancy, strange choreography and cringe-worthy commentary.

Michel Platini’s angst can only be imagined. He considers himself the father of the first 24-team European Championships, but was banned from its birth due to the unfortunate unpleasantness surrounding his opaque financial relationships with Sepp Blatter.

Since he is thought likely to be suspended from football activity for a number of years, if not for life, by Fifa, he had better get used to his reduced status amongst the game’s great unwashed, watching such occasions on TV.

Platini had to endure Gianni Infantino, his former underling, seizing centre stage in the usual minstrel show. The knowledge it would not have harmed the Swiss administrator’s prospects of succeeding Blatter as Fifa president is unlikely to have improved his mood.

Infantino, a multi-lingual lawyer, was smoothness personified as the tournament took shape. It remains to be seen how the extended format works out; though it lent scope and drama to the qualification process, the finals may well be a slow burn.

The group stage encourages initial caution, since the top two from each of the six sections will qualify, together with the four best third-placed nations. Stalls will be set out to avoid defeat as a primary aim.

The tournament structure meant there was no Group of Death, more a Group of Inconvenient Indigestion, featuring Belgium, Italy, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, whose manager Martin O'Neill conducted post-draw interviews with the relish of a man chewing broken glass.

I happened to cover Northern Ireland the last time they qualified for a major tournament, the 1986 World Cup. A wonderful adventure ended in Guadalajara, and the reality check only Brazil can supply, but the journey was memorable for the unity of the squad and the intensity of support.

They are in Group C with free-scoring Poland and World champions Germany, who will compete for overall favouritism with France and Spain. Before their fans bemoan fate too passionately, there is an overriding compensation: they could be Scottish.