EURO 2016 Finals Draw

Ukraine go into pot 2 for the finals draw, Sweden go into pot 3 and Turkey are confirmed as the final country in pot 4.

The draw takes place tomorrow (Saturday) beginning at 5pm.

I'm looking forward to see how the draw comes out later on. There's four pots for teams to be drawn from, with Pot 1 containing the top seeds and Pot 4 the lowest ranked teams based on the criteria of performance and qualifying record at the last three major tournaments (Euro 2016, World Cup 2014 and Euro 2012). France as hosts are already drawn in Group A.

The official draw

Group A: France, Switzerland, Romania, Albania

Group B: England, Russia, Slovakia, Wales

Group C: Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Northern Ireland

Group D: Spain, Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey

Group E: Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Republic of Ireland

Group F: Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Iceland

Well both Irish teams have a lot of hard work ahead, but I think England and Wales will both be reasonably pleased with their group.

Portugal (and Ronaldo) will be delighted with (on paper) a very winnable group. Remember though that a few third placed teams will also get out of the group so not sure if there is a traditional "group of death" anymore.

Yeah Northern ireland have got a shitter of a group World champions and then keeping lendonswki quiet and then

If England win their group it's a 3rd placed team in the next round and then it could be Belgium, Italy or Portugal in the quarter finals, where England could go out on penalties. But if we don’t lose on penalties in the quarters, it could possibly be Spain in the semi finals if Spain were to win their group (which they didn't last time in the World Cup).

If it all went according to the seedings the semi-finals would be Spain vs. England or Portugal and France vs. Belgium or Germany.

I think most nations would be enviously looking at Group F thinking 'Gawd blimey if only we could have been drawn in there' .

It's just as tough for Belgium as it is for the Republic of Ireland as they have their No.1 ranking to defend