England confident after World Cup draw

For the full World Cup draw, see the post below.

ENGLAND will be confident of a good World Cup finals after being drawn with United States, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C.

Fabio Capello's Three Lions were rewarded for an impressive qualifying campaign by being seeded, meaning they avoided the likes of Brazil and Spain.

Importantly, Capello's men also steered clear of Portugal, France and Ivory Coast from the other pots.

Instead, England will begin with a match against the United States who famously beat them 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup finals.

But England have won nine of the ten matches since then, including a 2-0 win last May with goals from John Terry and Steven Gerrard at Wembley.

Capello's men have also beaten Slovenia 2-1 this season in a friendly at Wembley.

Frank Lampard scored a penalty and Jermain Defoe netted a second before Zlatan Ljubijankic pulled a goal back late on.

That victory is the only match between the two sides but that is still one more game than England-Algeria, a fixture which has yet to be played.

Looking at the draw in a wider context, England will also be glad to be in the opposite side of the draw to favourites Spain and Brazil.

The Brazilians have ended up in the toughest group on paper, being drawn with Portugal and Ivory Coast as well as minnows North Korea in Group G.

The draw has been particularly harsh on Ivory Coast, regarded by many as the strongest African nation, especially as they were also in the Group of Death in 2006 with Argentina and Netherlands.

Euro 2008 champions Spain should find life easier in Group H against Honduras, Switzerland and Chile, though the Chileans qualified well in the South America group.

As the lowest ranked nation, hosts South Africa were always going to face a tough draw though Group A could have been worse for them.

Uruguay and France are only at the finals after controversial playoff wins but it would be expected that one of them would still join the skillful Mexicans in the second round.

Holders Italy will be pleased to have been put in Group F.

The Italians will face New Zealand, making their first appearance since 1982, debutants Slovakia and Paraguay, who have never been past the second round in seven appearances.

Group D features a tough test for Germany who must play Australia, Serbia and Ghana. If England progress, they would play a second round match against a Group D team.

Meanwhile Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon in Group E appears to be the most evenly-matched foursome.

Finally, a case of deja vu places Argentina, Nigeria and Greece in Group B, 16 years on from the draw for USA 1994.

World Cup 2002 semi finalists South Korea are the remaining team in Group B.

FIFA 2010 World Cup Draw

Full World Cup Draw and fixtures:

Group A
1 SOUTH AFRICA
2 MEXICO
3 URUGUAY
4 FRANCE

Fixtures:
Fri June 11 South Africa v Mexico Johannesburg 3.00
Fri June 11 Uruguay v France Cape Town 7.30
Wed June 16 South Africa v Uruguay Pretoria 7.30
Thu June 17 France v Mexico Polokwane 7.30
Tue June 22 Mexico v Uruguay Rustenburg 3.00
Tue June 22 France v South Africa Bloemfontein 3.00


Group B
1 ARGENTINA
2 NIGERIA
3 SOUTH KOREA
4 GREECE

Fixtures:
Sat June 12 Argentina v Nigeria Ellis Park 3.00
Sat June 12 South Korea v Greece Port Elizabeth 12.30
Thu June 17 Greece v Nigeria Bloemfontein 3.00
Thu June 17 Argentina v South Korea Johannesburg 12.30
Tue June 22 Nigeria v South Korea Durban 7.30
Tue June 22 Greece v Argentina Polokwane 7.30


Group C
1 ENGLAND
2 UNITED STATES
3 ALGERIA
4 SLOVENIA

Fixtures:
Sat June 12 England v United States Rustenburg 7.30
Sun June 13 Algeria v Slovenia Polokwane 12.30
Fri June 18 Slovenia v United States Ellis Park 3.00
Fri June 18 England v Algeria Cape Town 7.30
Wed June 23 Slovenia v England Port Elizabeth 3.00
Wed June 23 United States v Algeria Pretoria 3.00


Group D
1 GERMANY
2 AUSTRALIA
3 SERBIA
4 GHANA

Fixtures:
Sun June 13 Germany v Australia Durban 7.30
Sun June 13 Serbia v Ghana Pretoria 3.00
Fri June 18 Germany v Serbia Port Elizabeth 12.30
Sat June 19 Ghana v Australia Rustenburg 3.00
Wed June 23 Ghana v Germany Johannesburg 7.30
Wed June 23 Australia v Serbia Nelspruit 7.30


Group E
1 NETHERLANDS
2 DENMARK
3 JAPAN
4 CAMEROON

Fixtures:
Mon June 14 Netherlands v Denmark Johannesburg 12.30
Mon June 14 Japan v Cameroon Bloemfontein 3.00
Sat June 19 Netherlands v Japan Durban 12.30
Sat June 19 Cameroon v Denmark Pretoria 7.30
Thu June 24 Denmark v Japan Rustenburg 7.30
Thu June 24 Cameroon v Netherlands Cape Town 7.30


Group F
1 ITALY
2 PARAGUAY
3 NEW ZEALAND
4 SLOVAKIA

Fixtures:
Mon June 14 Italy v Paraguay Cape Town 7.30
Tue June 15 New Zealand v Slovakia Rustenburg 12.30
Sun June 20 Slovakia v Paraguay Bloemfontein 12.30
Sun June 20 Italy v New Zealand Nelspruit 3.00
Thu June 24 Slovakia v Italy Ellis Park 3.00
Thu June 24 Paraguay v New Zealand Polokwane 3.00


Group G
1 BRAZIL
2 NORTH KOREA
3 IVORY COAST
4 PORTUGAL

Fixtures:
Tue June 15 Ivory Coast v Portugal Port Elizabeth 3.00
Tue June 15 Brazil v North Korea Ellis Park 7.30
Sun June 20 Brazil v Ivory Coast Johannesburg 7.30
Mon June 21 Portugal v North Korea Cape Town 12.30
Fri June 25 Portugal v Brazil Durban 3.00
Fri June 25 North Korea v Ivory Coast Nelspruit 3.00

Group H
1 SPAIN
2 SWITZERLAND
3 HONDURAS
4 CHILE

Fixtures:
Wed June 16 Honduras v Chile Nelspruit 12.30
Wed June 16 Spain v Switzerland Durban 3.00
Mon June 21 Chile v Switzerland Port Elizabeth 3.00
Mon June 21 Spain v Honduras Ellis Park 7.30
Fri June 25 Chile v Spain Pretoria 7.30
Fri June 25 Switzerland v Honduras Bloemfontein 7.30


Second Round
1 Sat June 26 Grp A winner v Grp B runner up Port Elizabeth 3.00
2 Sat June 26 Grp C winner v Grp D runner up Rustenburg 7.30
3 Sun June 27 Grp D winner v Grp C runner up Bloemfontein 3.00
4 Sun June 27 Grp B winner v Grp A runner up Johannesburg 7.30
5 Mon June 28 Grp E winner v Grp F runner up Durban 3.00
6 Mon June 28 Grp G winner v Grp H runner up Ellis Park 7.30
7 Tue June 29 Grp F winner v Grp E runner up Pretoria 3.00
8 Tue June 29 Grp H winner v Grp G runner up Cape Town 7.30

Quarter Finals
(C) Fri July 2 Winner 5 v Winner 7 Port Elizabeth 3.00
(A) Fri July 2 Winner 1 v Winner 3 Johannesburg 7.30
(B) Sat July 3 Winner 2 v Winner 4 Cape Town 3.00
(D) Sat July 3 Winner 6 v Winner 8 Ellis Park 7.30

Semi Finals & Third place
Tue July 6 Winner (A) v Winner (C) Cape Town 7.30
Wed July 7 Winner (B) v Winner (D) Durban 7.30
Sat July 10 Third place playoff Port Elizabeth 7.30

THE FINAL Sun July 11 Johannesburg 7.30
All kick-off times are BST.

PRE-DRAW SEEDING
Pot One (seeds)
South Africa (hosts), Italy, Brazil, Argentina, England, Netherlands, Germany, Spain
Pot Two (Asia-Oceania-North America)
Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras
Pot Three (Africa-South America)
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay
Pot Four (Europe)
France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia