Martin O'Neill hails fantastic qualification campaign ahead of Euro 2016 draw

Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill will be hoping history does not repeat itself at the draw for the Euro 2016 finals in Paris on Saturday.

Ireland suffered a nightmare draw in their last appearance at a major finals in Poland and Ukraine in 2012, and exited the tournament without a point.

On that occasion Giovanni Trapattoni’s side found themselves up against Spain, Italy and Croatia and there is potential for a broadly similar outcome this time round.

O’Neill’s men will come out of pool four, the same pool as Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning they cannot find themselves in the same group as their neighbours.

O’Neill will probably not be too despondent over the possibility of drawing Germany among the top seeds, having beaten and drawn with the world champions during the qualifying campaign.

The Italians are certainly the team to be avoided in a varied pool two, while Poland are probably the strongest of the pool three sides.

O’Neill reflected on his side’s qualifying campaign this week during the award of the 2015 Sports Manager of the Year jointly with his Northern Ireland counterpart Michael O’Neill.

O’Neill said: “I felt with four games left we were still in the group and I don’t think it was really bravado.

“We had to win our games either at home to Germany or away to Poland but we knew it was possible. The players came through and they have been fantastic.”

Elsewhere, England face the prospect of being drawn in the same group as Gareth Bale and his Wales team-mates in the Euro 2016 finals due to UEFA’s “bizarre” seeding system.

The boys in green could be drawn against Roy hodgson's England.

Roy Hodgson’s England side are in the pot of top seeds for the draw and have a 50-50 chance of being drawn in the same group as one of Wales, Northern Ireland or the boys in green – who are all guaranteed to avoid each other as they are in the pot of six bottom seeds.

Wales will be the team in the bottom pot that Hodgson will be most keen to avoid – Chris Coleman’s side topped their qualifying group and their recent form has been so good that they were among the top seeds for the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw in the summer.

UEFA uses its own co-efficient for seeding instead of current world rankings and Coleman said it was strange that Wales were now among the bottom seeds.

Coleman, speaking in Paris ahead of the draw, said: “It is bizarre that we were top seeds for the World Cup draw and bottom seeds for this one. When the seedings came out for this and saw we were in pot four it did seem strange".

The draw will place the 24 finalists into six groups of four teams for next summer’s finals. The winners and runners-up in each group will qualify for the knockout phase as well as the four best third-placed sides – meaning that only eight teams will be eliminated in the group phase.

England will avoid the hosts France and holders Spain as well as the other top seeds Belgium, Germany and Portugal. The team to avoid among the second seeds is Italy, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden side, the Czech Republic and Poland all daunting prospects in the pot of third seeds.

Hodgson has insisted he does not mind if England are drawn against Wales, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

He said: “I will take what comes. There is a good chance we will get one of those but it is not something that pleases or displeases me. It is just a fact of life and whoever we get we will do our best to beat them.”

The draw takes place on Saturday at Paris’ Palais de Congres at 5pm. The finals start on Friday June 10, 2016, with the final taking place at the Stade de France on Sunday, July 10, 2016.