England will meet France, Switzerland and Croatia in the opening stage of next summer's European Championship finals in Portugal.
France are reigning champions and feature a host of familiar faces, led by Arsenal's Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, and start as pre-tournament favourites.
But England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said he was reasonably happy with the draw and pinpointed Group D, which features Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and Latvia as the most difficult to progress from.
The pick of the other ties sees hosts Portugal meet Spain in Group A, along with Russia and Greece.
 | EURO 2004 GROUPS Group A Portugal; Greece; Spain; Russia Group B France; England; Switzerland; Croatia Group C Sweden; Bulgaria; Denmark; Italy Group D Czech Rep; Latvia; Germany; Holland |
Italy and Sweden are favourites to come through Group C with Denmark and Bulgaria.
"I'm really looking forward to the game against France," said Eriksson.
"It's a big, big game against one of the tournament favourites, and it will be very tough."
But Eriksson added that he was not under-estimating the other two teams in their group.
"We played Croatia recently and even though we won 3-1 the Croatians showed that they are a good team," he added. "Teams from eastern Europe do tend to be technically very solid, physically strong and are very very good at keeping hold of the ball. Their passing game is often frustrating because they can keep the ball for so long!
"I think that they are good - they beat Slovenia away to qualify and that is not easy so maybe they can do well in Portugal.
| LATEST ODDS 3/1 France; 5/1 Italy; 5/1 Portugal; 6/1 Spain; 7/1 England; 8/1 Holland; 14/1 Czech Rep;16/1 Germany; 25/1 Sweden; 33/1 Denmark; 40/1 Bulgaria; 40/1 Croatia; 40/1 Switzerland; 50/1 Greece; 50/1 Russia; 150/1 Latvia |
"Switzerland are a good side. They won their group and finished above Russia and the Irish, so we should look at them.
"They play a very mixed style of football, maybe because of their geography. In many ways they are quite German in their style but also they are more Italian at times.
"Swiss football is progressing very quickly - at youth level they are very strong. The Yakin brothers have been excellent for FC Basle, and Stephane Chapuisat is still a dangerous striker.
"Like other sides, they will limit their ambitions to getting through to the quarter-finals. After that, who knows?" added Eriksson.
The tournament kicks off on 12 June, when Portugal, take on Greece in Porto.
MMIX
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If the boys can't psyche themselves up for France, they might as well give up playing. Bring it on!
