So the groups have been drawn and as usual there is a discussion of which one is the Group Of Death. Common consensus seems to be E though I personally think they are all pretty tough.
According to the FIFA Rankings (for whatever that's worth) it's group D (Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Croatia) closely followed by E (Belgium, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Sweden) and F (Portugal, Iceland, Austria, Hungary). There is only 2.5% between the combined ranking points so it's essentially a crapshoot. As usual I think France's ranking is a bit false as they didn't have to play qualifying so didn't get that points benefit. Group A is more comparable to B & C.
Combined FIFA Ranking Points - D - 4121, E - 4066, F - 4016, B - 3835, C - 3790, A - 3644
I'm reasonably happy with England's draw, it was inevitable we'd get one of the Home Nations and the one we wanted to avoid is clearly Wales, I'm just glad we missed Italy who were clearly the strongest team in pot 2. Sweden with Zlatan are also extremely dangerous.
The beauty this tournament is there are no bad teams, the lowest ranked is 38th in a tournament with 24 teams in it & 12 of the top 20 teams in the world are here. Biggest shock is still that Netherlands aren't there.
All we really know is that England will disappoint. COME ON ENGERLUND!!
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