Euro 2012: France draw England!
02/12/2011
Les Bleus now know who they will face at the finals of Euro 2012 next summer: age-old rivals England - along with co-host Ukraine and Sweden - in Group D, following the draw for Euro 2012, held in Kiev on Friday night.
Drawn second in Group D after host nation Ukraine, France were fortunate to avoid coming up against either of last year's World Cup finalists Spain and the Netherlands and in so doing eluded the group of death - Group B - that features the Dutchmen, Germany, Portugal and Denmark.
History
France's highest-ranked group-stage opponent will be traditional foes England who, when the sides last met, went down 2-1 in a friendly at Wembley in November 2010 thanks to goals from Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena.
The history between the two sides stretches back much longer than that, however, with England having twice (in 1966 and 1982) eliminated France from the World Cup, but with France having the edge in Europe's national team competition with an unbeaten run of four matches against England.
Unbeaten
Laurent Blanc's men also got the better of Ukraine in a friendly, in June, scoring four goals to one to stretch their unbeaten record over the Euro 2012 co-hosts to cover all six matches the sides have played.
So too France have never lost to final Group D rivals Sweden in all 17 encounters between the sides. However, although France beat Sweden at home and drew away in World Cup qualifiers ahead of USA '94, Sweden went on to top the group and qualify for the finals at France's expense.
The full draw:
Group A: Poland, Russia, Greece, Czech Republic
Group B: Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Denmark
Group C: Spain, Italy, Croatia, Ireland
Group D: Ukraine, England, Sweden, France