World Cup: Roy Hogson hopes for a kind draw

The World Cup groups will be drawn this Friday and England manager Roy Hodgson is hoping for some luck. He says he isn't concerned with the opponents though, but with the venues. England are not seeded for the draw so they are certain to share a group with a seeded team, including the likes of Brazil, Spain, Germany or Argentina. "I'm more concerned by the venues than by the teams we draw," said Hodgson. "You always hope the draw is going to be kind to you in terms of where you are going to be asked to play. There are venues in Brazil that will be harder to play in than others." England qualified for the finals by finishing top of Group H but lost two consecutive friendly matches against Chile and Germany. England have one more friendly on March 5, Denmark at Wembley, before Hodgson must submit his 30-man squad. "Maybe in terms of the teams you are drawn against some on paper look harder than others," said Hodgson. "The draw is a time when speculation is rife and people have a lot of fun looking at the potential possibilities. It is a nice game to play but I have not involved myself too much in that, we will get what we get. The most important thing is to be there. We don't know how good Argentina are, we would all think 'blimey, Argentina are strong' but we don't know that. They might be no stronger than Chile. The good thing is that if we get Argentina, for example, we will be there and have a chance to play them and believe we can go out and beat them." England are 25/1 to win the World Cup at Bet365, way behind favourites Brazil who are 16/5 to win the trophy while Germany are second best at 5/1.