Italy, Spain and Croatia. It was the disaster of a draw that nearly made us sick. But we won't talk about Euro 2012 ever again. Having said that, it's entirely likely that we could end up in a similar situation to the one we faced in Poland and Ukraine. Given that we were unseeded for the play-off draw, it'll come as no surprise that we're now guaranteed a place in Pot 4 of the main Euro 2016 draw.
The draw takes place on December 12th and tickets go on sale on December 15th.
The following scenario (via the ever excellent footballseeding.com) shows things as they stand with two teams yet to be certain of their places in the draw.
Ukraine will likely go through against Slovenia tonight, ensuring they go into Pot 2, while it's a straight shootout between Denmark and Sweden with the winner going into Pot 3. All that means is that we have a tasty (sure, that word will do) group to look forward to.
Best case scenario (provided Slovenia don't cause a shock tonight):
England - Ukraine - Hungary - Ireland
The English in the Euros again? Oh hell yes. There may be easier draws (Portugal) but we don't care about that. We'll fancy ourselves big time against the English and after that we'll be delighted with whatever we get.
In Pot 2, there's not a whole lot of difference between the teams (Italy aside). Austria on paper may look good but their form in qualifying was sensational so we'll steer clear of them and look to Ukraine. We'd probably be happy enough with Switzerland as well.
In Pot 3, one of Hungary, Slovakia or Romania would do nicely.
Worst case scenario:
Spain - Italy - Czech Republic - Ireland
That looks dangerously similar to Euro 2012. Regardless of what happened in qualifying, we still wouldn't want Germany but seeing Spain and Italy come out again would bring back painful memories so, we'd take our chance with the Germans.
Having said all that, we're on cloud nine right now. We beat the Germans so we'll back ourselves no matter what.
