By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
England will
have a major job on their hands to escape their group as the draw for next
summer’s World Cup put them in Group D alongside Uruguay and Italy.
Roy Hodgson’s
side will begin their campaign in Manaus, near the Amazon rainforest in uncomfortable humidity and with a kick-off time of 11pm UK time on Saturday, 14
June 2014. Five days afterwards, the Three Lions will make the short journey
from their Rio de Janeiro base to Sao Paulo to take on Uruguay before a first
ever meeting with Costa Rica on 24 June in Belo Horizonte.
England and
Italy have good knowledge of one another. The Italians knocked England out of
the quarter-finals of the European Championships in 2012 on a penalty shootout
having outclassed their opponents in Kiev. Hodgson got partial revenge a few
weeks later with a friendly victory in Bern against the Azzuri. Uruguay have
never been beaten by England and have the dangerous strikeforce trio of Diego
Forlan, PSG’s Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez of Liverpool among their attacking
options. The South Americans were also semi-finalists at the last finals in
South Africa four years ago.
The opening
match of the tournament will take place on Thursday, 12 June where the hosts
Brazil will entertain Croatia. Mexico and Cameroon complete Group A with
the bookies favourites expected to progress as winners of this group. They will
have to be aware of Mexico though, who shocked the Brazilians in the Olympics
final in London in 2012.
There will be
a repeat of the 2010 final on day two as holders Spain face Holland. Chile have
also been drawn in a tough group in Group B along with Australia. Other
interesting groups see Germany paired with Portugal, Ghana and USA in Group G
and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s first match in the finals will be against Lionel Messi
and Argentina.
The draw is
done and for England, a tough task to even be around come the knockout stages.
THE WORLD CUP 2014 DRAW
Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon
Group B: Spain, Holland, Chile, Australia
Group C: Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan
Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, ENGLAND, Italy
Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France,
Honduras
Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran,
Nigeria
Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA
Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea
You can find
the full match schedule here
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