Levein will be in Poland for the Euro 2012 draw on Sunday

Scotland manager Craig Levein has admitted he would love the chance to lead his country into matches against England in the Euro 2012 campaign.

Levein will be in Warsaw on Sunday for the draw for the tournament, the finals of which will be staged in Poland and Ukraine two and a half years from now.

"I'm going to Warsaw to watch this draw and have no idea who I really want to get pulled out of the hat," he said.

"Part of me would love to get England. I'd like to get a chance to play them."

After the disappointment of the failed bid to qualify for this summer's World Cup in South Africa, Levein is aware how desperate Scottish football fans are to reach the finals of a major tournament for the first time since the World Cup in France in 1998.

And Levein has been working on a plan to make the most of the Euro 2012 draw to give his team every possible advantage in their qualifying matches.

"I've got a strategy that I think might work," he said. "I'll need to sit down once the draw has been made and finalise that and go over to the draws meeting and see if we can get what we are looking for.

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"There are loads of factors that you have to take into account. You have to think about which teams are playing in the World Cup - will that have an effect on their performances early in the Euro qualifying?

"You have to look at the temperature in the countries when you are playing, which countries have different seasons to ours.

"You must have certain guidelines that you have to stick to and I have some idea what those are."

With experience of managing only at club level - at Cowdenbeath, Hearts, Leicester, Raith Rovers and Dundee United - international football is a step up for Levein and he is using his contacts in the game for advice.

He told BBC Radio Scotland: "I've been visiting a lot of managers who have international experience and I've been picking people's brains.

"I don't know an awful lot about some of the teams.

"Once the draw is done, we'll watch the players for their club teams and get as much information as possible."

I feel that everybody I have spoken to is really enthusiastic and excited about starting the new campaign Scotland manager Craig Levein

When asked if he had spoken to Barry Ferguson about a return to the Scotland team, Levein replied: "I'm having a press conference on Friday and I'll give everybody a heads-up what has been happening over the past six weeks.

"I feel that everybody I have spoken to is really enthusiastic and excited about starting the new campaign."

Scotland are in the third pot of seeds, along with Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

England are in pot one, while Wales are in the fourth pot.

The draw win Warsaw will split the teams into six groups of six teams and three groups of five teams, with matches to be played between September this year and November 2011.

The nine group winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the finals while the eight remaining runners-up face play-off matches.

Seeding pots

Pot one: Spain (holders), Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia

Pot two: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania

Pot three: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot four: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus

Pot five: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein

Pot six: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

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