Euro 2016 group draw results: England face Wales in Group B

England will be favorites to top their group at Euro 2016, but only just barely. They’ve got to go through a Russia team that’s been hot since making a coaching change, a Slovakian side that managed to beat Spain during qualifying, and most notably, local rivals Wales. Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey will be motivated to prove their team is the best one in the British Isles.

Meet the teams:

England are one of the stalwart powers of UEFA and international competition, but for all their history they’ve never won the Euros. Their best finish is third place, which they’ve done twice -- once way back in 1968 and once in 1996. They’re always a good team in these competitions, but they’re rarely a great one, and that too often leaves their fans disappointed. Still, the solid-if-unexciting nature England often take into these tournaments is a good base to build from, and they only need a couple lucky breaks to go from “solid contender” to “tournament finalist.”

Key player: Raheem Sterling

Sterling has been a bit of a mercurial attacker so far in his career, mostly down to the inconsistencies of youth. But this season he’s been showing serious growth and development, and can is finally starting to consistently tap into his significant potential. His quick and dynamic skillset on the wings is an incredibly valuable one in any competition, but in an international tournament like this, it’s as good as gold.

Despite a disappointing World Cup performance, Russia kept Fabio Capello as manager for this cycle, mostly because it would have been really expensive to fire him. But with Russia in serious trouble after six games, he was fired, with CSKA Moscow boss Leonid Slutsky brought in to do double duty through this summer. He did a spectacular job in qualifying, guiding his team to five wins, helping them to surge past Sweden and into an automatic qualifying spot. Russia have always had the talent to make a deep run in any tournament, but no one’s been able to get the most out of them since Euro 2008. Maybe Slutsky is the man to change that.

Key player: Artyom Dzyuba

Russia’s top goalscorer in Euro qualifying might be an even bigger factor for them when they come up against top competition. Dzyuba, a 6’5” target man with surprising mobility for his size, might have to make the most of set pieces and half-chances to find the back of the net at Euro 2016, and Russia might need him to do exactly that.

Last time the Welsh troubled a major summer tournament was 1958, when they reached the quarter finals of the World Cup before running into some Brazilian kid called Pele. History doesn’t record what happened to him, but in the intervening years the Welsh have suffered through a clutch of heartbreaking near-misses, and their appearance in France next summer will be the very satisfying scratching of a very long-term itch.

They probably won’t be celebrating with any particularly scintillating football, mind. Only one automatic qualifier scored fewer goals, and Albania have the reasonable excuse that they played two fewer games. This is a team designed to keep things tight at one end -- manager Chris Coleman likes to play a back five -- in the hope that Gareth Bale will do Gareth Bale-type things at the other end. As plans go, it’s not a bad one, and it worked in qualifying: Wales only conceded five, and Bale scored seven.

Key player: Gareth Bale

He may not be the happiest character in Real Madrid’s ongoing tragicomedy, and he may have picked up a quite ridiculous haircut while gadding about on the continent, but Gareth Bale loves playing for Wales and it’s very much mutual. Absurdly quick, ridiculously powerful, and with a shot that threatens to leave the football trailing sooty flames, a focused Bale with space to run into is one of the best attacking players in the world. He also takes a mean free kick, works as hard as anybody else in the team, and has thighs like a dinosaur. One of the big dinosaurs. They’re ... well, they’re quite the thighs.

Slovakia are an interesting team. Not someone you’d normally consider a contender for any real results from a tournaments like the Euros, they also proved during their qualification run that they’re not a team to be counted out of any match. They’re not likely to make any kind of deep run in this one, but this Slovakia team is set up to punish any and all mistakes their opponent makes. Will they win a shootout? No. Will they win a defensive grindfest? Probably not. But they’ll make life difficult for whoever they play, and that creates a lot of opportunities to surprise.

Key player: Marek Hamsik

A gifted playmaker and underrated direct attacker, Hamsik’s skillset has long been admired all over the game. As good as he’s been for Napoli in his career, he’s been at least as good for Slovakia, often carrying the team on his back and driving them to positive results. This is going to be the best chance for Hamsik to show off his talents on the international stage that he’s had in some time, and it’s going to be interesting to see just what he does in the limelight.