England set to be second seeds

ENGLAND are set to miss out on being one of the top seeds for the Euro 2004 finals – meaning they could be drawn with holders France or hosts Portugal in the group stage.

UEFA will not confirm the seedings until after the play-offs have taken place, but the tournament's regulations specify that they should be worked out on countries' records in qualifying for Euro 2004 and the 2002 World Cup.

That means that France and Portugal are automatically included as top seeds, and the other two countries with the best records from the qualifying campaigns are, surprisingly, Sweden and the Czech Republic.