The only gripe for England was a logistical one.
Fabio Capello's side will be based in Poland for the Euro 2012 finals, but the draw yesterday sent them to Ukraine, where they face the joint hosts, Sweden and France. England's fate barely seemed an inconvenience compared to the nations dragged together in Group B, which immediately took on the air of an extreme test of survival.
The challenge for the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Portugal is to not be overawed by the most daunting of the four Euro 2012 groups. The intrigues quickly accumulated to deepen the sense that Group B will proved the most dramatic and competitive encounters of the opening weeks of the finals: the age-old rivalry between Holland and Germany; the fact that Denmark and Portugal faced each other during the qualifying campaign; the status of all four countries as being among Europe's elite national teams.
As the draw progressed, it seemed to be willing to confirm Spain's position at the pinnacle of the game. The European and World champions would expect their closest challengers for the trophy to be the Netherlands, who they defeated 1-0 in a tensely, and at times aggressively, combative World Cup final last summer in South Africa, and Germany, whose collection of brilliant young talents continue to mature into an imposing force.
Spain were drawn in Group C, along with Italy, the Republic of Ireland and Croatia. There was a shudder of dismay among the Spanish contingent when they were paired with the Italians rather than England, but otherwise the draw was generous in gathering their main rivals together in a different group.
Instead, it is the meeting between Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic of Ireland and Italy that provides the fascination, with the doyen of Italian managers never having defeated his home nation in an international fixture. While Irish minds will drift back, in reverence, to 1994, when Ray Houghton's goal secured a famous victory over the Azzuri at the World Cup finals in the US, the manager will already be strategising about how to thwart Cesare Prandelli's side. Italy were one of four teams – along with Spain, Germany and the Netherlands – to remain unbeaten during the qualifying campaign.
England, the last team to be drawn, would have been relieved to be placed in Group D. Their opening fixture will be against France, who were lowly seeds due to their abject performances in recent World Cup and European championship finals. They are resurgent under Laurent Blanc, though, who has found the means to blend some exciting young talents with an old guard that had become jaded and troublesome under Raymond Domenech.
The two countries also met in Euro 2004, in Portugal, when England led 1-0, only for Zinedine Zidane to score twice in time added on. The French can also be encouraged by their competitive record against England, having won four and drawn one of their last five meetings.
Ukraine will be roused by their home support, and a Sweden side containing Zlatan Ibrahimovic can never be dismissed lightly, but England's only cause of aggravation was being sent to play in Kiev and Donetsk, the most easterly of the host cities, from their base in Poland.
The opening match of the tournament will be between the other co-hosts, Poland, and Greece, who were drawn together in Group A with Russian and the Czech Republic, who edged Scotland out of second place in the qualifying campaign. It is the most benign of the four groups, and the least diverting.
Attention will keep drawing back to Group B, where the competition will be ruthless.
Group A
Poland
Greece
Russia
Czech Republic
Group B
Holland
Denmark
Germany
Portugal
Group C
Spain
Italy
Republic of Ireland
Croatia
Group D
Ukraine
Sweden
France
England
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article