ONLINE POLL: Hodgson hails England’s draw and its ‘pleasant’ trips for fans

The Three Lions were placed in Group E in yesterday’s draw in Nice along with Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Marino.

With UEFA having brought in a new format which will see the top two teams in each group qualify automatically along with the best third-placed side, England must fancy their chances of booking a place for the finals in France.

Even if Hodgson’s men miss out through that route, the other eight third-placed nations will be given another opportunity to qualify via a play-off.

No wonder, therefore, that Hodgson declared himself pleased with the draw.

He said: “I am very satisfied, particularly for the fans. They have had some quite difficult trips in recent years and this time we go to places that are a little easier to get to and very pleasant to visit.”

England were among the top seeds in yesterday’s draw, meaning they could not be in a group with any of the game’s traditional superpowers.

The side to avoid, therefore, was Belgium, who despite being considered to have an excellent chance of doing well at this summer’s World Cup were placed in the second pot of seeds.

In that respect, Hodgson will have been relieved to draw Switzerland, whom he led to the 1994 World Cup finals during four years at the helm. England were last paired with the Swiss in qualifying for Euro 2012, when Fabio Capello’s men triumphed 3-1 in Basle before being held to a 2-2 draw at Wembley.

Lithuania will be new territory for England, who boast an impressive record against the rest of Group E with Estonia having been beaten 3-0 twice in qualifying for Euro 2008 and San Marino regularly on the receiving end of heavy defeats when up against the Three Lions.

Hodgson said: “Switzerland always brings a smile to my face because I had four fantastic years with them.

“I went to Vilnius (Lithuania) with Fulham (in their UEFA Cup run to the final), so it is not completely unknown to me. It is a fantastic place to visit.

“Obviously these Baltic states have always been good footballing countries, but there are other places where I think it would be much harder for our fans to get to.

“They will enjoy Vilnius.”

In a break from tradition, UEFA published the fixtures for Euro 2016 qualifying within a few hours of yesterday’s draw.

England will start their campaign away in Switzerland on Monday, September 8 with their first qualifier at Wembley against San Marino on Thursday, October 9.

Another change brought in ahead of qualifying is that fixtures will be spread across six days from the Thursday of an international break, as opposed to the previous format of playing on Fridays and Tuesdays.

For Hodgson, this has led to fears of a clash with the Premier League over staging fixtures.

He added: “Thursday and Sunday concerns me because I don’t think we would be able to persuade the Premier League and Sky Sports to bring the best fixtures to the Saturday. It will mean, basically, that we will get no preparation.”

Scotland and the Republic of Ireland will meet in Group D, which also features Germany, Poland, Georgia and newcomers Gibraltar, who had originally been drawn in Group C against Spain, but were removed for political reasons.

The Scottish and Irish FAs were among those pressing for an expansion of the Championships back in 2009, but both nations will find it tough, as Martin O’Neill admitted after being paired with another former Celtic manager in Gordon Strachan.

Republic chief O’Neill said: “I think it is the toughest group, but it is an exciting one. We have got Scotland, we have Poland who we have played in a recent friendly and whose recent efforts (against England) at Wembley were not too bad at all.

“It is tough, there are other groups we might have preferred to be in. But we will get on with it.

“Germany, you would say, are the outstanding side in the group, but there is plenty to fight for.”

Strachan hailed the draw as “terrific”. The former Leeds United captain added: “Every tie has something in it. You’ve got Gibraltar, new to the competition; Germany, one of the best teams in the world.

“Then there is the Republic of Ireland and I think the two sets of supporters will turn those games into a cup tie.

“There are some groups you might call mundane, but we are definitely in an exciting group.”

Yesterday’s draw was kinder to Wales, who will compete in Group B with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel, Cyprus and Andorra.

Despite Bosnia being the top seed, Belgium will be favourites to win the group, but with third place guaranteeing at least a play-off Wales have a chance of qualifying for their first major tournament since 1958.

Wales manager Chris Coleman said: “Definitely there’s a bit of excitement in there. Teams like ourselves – Wales, Scotland and Ireland and Northern Ireland – it gives us a little more chance of maybe qualifying and reaching a major tournament.

“The format that has been before is very difficult for us, but with the extra teams, who knows? It is all up for grabs.”

Northern Ireland, meanwhile, were drawn in Group F with top seeds Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland and the Faroe Islands.

Manager Michael O’Neill said: “Greece will be a very tough game, but it would probably be the country you may have chosen.

“We have teams in there, the likes of Hungary, Romania and Finland, that I believe we can compete with and take points from.”

[email protected]