Intense attention on the England v Wales Group B fixture masks the reality of a satisfying Euro 2016 draw,with Russia and Slovakia hardly formidable foesOn the final occasion Roy Hodgson sat in one of those auditoriums and waited for the balls to be drawn before a major tournament, he left the room looking like a zombie and the defining image was of the chap in the next seat, or the Football organization chairman,Greg Dyke, pretending to slit his own throat, and then leaving with the kind of smile someone puts on when they have just fallen off the kerb and are pretending everything is OK.
This time,there was no need for defeatist gestures and the FA had strategically kept Dyke away from the television cameras. England’s game against Wales will inevitably dominate attention but the bigger picture is that both teams must be reasonably satisfied with their assignments in Group B. Slovakia shocked Spain in qualifying but they also lost at domestic to Belarus. Russia were in such a state of disarray, six games into their qualifying programme, and that Fabio Capello was sacked in July.
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Source: theguardian.com