Eriksson’s super six are Frenchmen Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo (Portugal), Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic), Raul (Spain) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (Holland).The scheduleDraw: Today (BBC2 11.25am) Finals: Saturday 12 June-Sunday 4 July. Holland are the team to avoid from the third tier, or “Pot C”, while Switzerland look the strongest of the fourth ranked group. A group of death for Eriksson would therefore bring France, Holland and Switzerland, while the opposite (a group of dearth perhaps?) might offer his native Sweden, Croatia and Latvia as opposition.France can also field two of the six players he is “most looking forward to watching”, which is not, presumably, the same as looking forward to facing. This second group, none of whom they can be drawn with when the 16 finalists are split into four groups of four, also contains Italy, Spain and Germany.

That constitutes a stronger quartet than the four top seeds in “Pot A”, among whom Portugal and France are joined by Sweden and the Czech Republic.Seedings are decided on qualifying matches only for this tournament and for the last World Cup, in both of which the Swedes and the Czechs happened to receive a favourable draw. The latter still did not even qualify for Japan and Korea, but their average number of points per game (2.33) is fractionally better than England’s 2.31.Meeting either of those countries, solid as they are, would clearly be a better result than coming up against the hosts or holders. “What is for sure is that whichever group they are in will be a very difficult one indeed.”The peculiar ranking system has, if anything, helped England by placing them among only the second seeds. They have the most technically gifted side in the whole championships.”Watching Holland demolish Scotland 6-0 in Amsterdam, he was impressed with two “wonderful” young players, Rafael van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder. In many ways they are like South Americans, especially Brazil.

Playing at home will be a big advantage for Portugal and they will be a real threat Their style of playing is very fluid, very skilful. England’s coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, has uncontroversially identified France, Portugal and Holland as the countries he would most like to avoid in this morning’s draw in Lisbon for the European Championship finals. It will be possible to meet the Dutch and either the holders or the hosts when Uefa dignitaries, including the winning Euro 2000 captain, Laurent Blanc, perform the usual over-complicated ceremony.
Eriksson said of France: “Technically, tactically and physically they are in top form, as they showed recently against Germany [winning 3-0]. The home side will fancy themselves at Galle, where it is likely to be dry and dusty and where they have won six of the eight matches. Kandy, venue for the Second Test, represents England’s best chance, as Sri Lanka have won there only four times in 14 matches.It may come down to the survival of the fittest. The sides are playing three Tests at different venues in 21 days in fearsome humidity.

It is to be hoped England are in a position where they might be level going into extra time.. Sandy can take 10 seemingly identical rods and itemise their features and defects. He talked long and hard with the Hardy’s people about minute differences, while I played with the reels, seeing how long I could make them spin.The rods? The only difference I noticed was the colour. And however beautiful they were, however progressive their action, they still didn’t catch me a Tweed salmon.. English cricket is preparing for a bitter struggle as its status in the country comes under threat. The game was looking distinctly out of sorts last week while it was besieged on three fronts.