Kevin Keegan was at pains to emphasise the positive after the draw for the Euro 2000 finals in Holland and Belgium next summer put England in the first of four groups, alongside Germany, Romania and Portugal.

At the other end of the draw, three of Europe's superpowers - Holland, the Czech Republic and Denmark - will join World Cup holders France in what is undeniably the most competitive group.

It was the second time in five days that England and Germany had been drawn together, but unlike the preliminaries of the 2002 World Cup in which only the top team in the table are assured of progressing, the leading two teams in each of the groups go through to the quarter-finals of the European Championship.

That will extend the safety net for Keegan and his players, but after going into the draw as one of the lowest seeded teams, he was quick to acknowledge that it could have been much worse.

"After the World Cup draw in Tokyo, both Germany and ourselves will have a point to prove," he said. "I'm not doing hand stands, but I have to say that it could have been a lot worse. Every group is going to be tough and I reckon there are harder ones than ours.

"Given the rivalry between the teams over the years, it has to be seen as a terrific draw and the fact that we'll play again in the World Cup will add extra spice to our game next summer.

"On their record over the last couple of years, Germany will fancy their chance of heading the table, but if we perform to our full potential we have a chance of coming through."

On the challenge of beating the other teams in the section, Keegan said: "England have a good record against Portugal, but that has to be set against the fact that the Portuguese have made great strides of late.

"We'll also have a point to prove against Romania who beat us in the World Cup finals in France. Since then, they haven't done all that much, but obviously they are still a strong team."

Mick McCarthy will be among those monitoring developments closely in this group since Portugal are one of the teams Ireland will encounter in Group Two of the World Cup qualifying programme.

As such he will be heading for Eindhoven on June 12th when England open their programme against the Portuguese. After that, Keegan's team take on Germany at Charleroi on June 17th, before completing their first phase schedule against Romania three days later.

Holland, the top seeded country in Ireland's World Cup group, will be one of those scrambling for survival in Group D where even Denmark, who qualified only through the play-offs, will enjoy at least some support in this open section. Even if France have receded from the exalted standards which enabled them to conquer the world less than 18 months ago, they are still a vastly experienced team who will surely prosper on the challenge of completing a double they can only have dreamed of at the start of the decade.

The Czech Republic, one of the better teams in the last European Championship, have produced some convincing performances of late and will have a realistic hope of reaching the last eight.

Spain, almost certainly the best team in Europe just now, will be expected to top Group C, with Norway and Yugoslavia, who qualified from Ireland's group, set to compete for the second qualifying spot.

Belgium, one of the host countries, have significant improvement to find if they are to survive in a section in which the meeting of Sweden and Italy may well determine the table toppers.