Spain draws Italy, Croatia and Ireland at 2012 finals

Spain and Portugal experienced differing fortunes at the draw for the 2012 European Championships in Kiev on Friday afternoon and coach Vicente del Bosque will have been considerably happier with the outcome than his counterpart Paulo Bento. Before the lavish ceremony in the Arts Palace in the Ukrainian capital, Del Bosque had said that he would prefer to avoid Germany in the group stage despite Spain having beaten Die Mannschaft in the final at Euro 2008 and in the last four at the 2010 World Cup. "Clearly they will be the most difficult opponents," the Spain coach said.

After the balls had been plucked by 1992 European Championship-winner Peter Schmeichel and Zinedine Zidane, of the triumphant 2000 France team, Spain was handed a group containing old foe Italy, Croatia and Ireland.

Bento's Portugal was drawn in the group of death precisely with Germany, Denmark - to which it lost during qualifying - and top seeded Holland.

Spain's opening match will be against Italy on June 10, followed by Ireland on June 14 and Croatia on June 18. All three matches will be played in Gdansk in Poland.

Portugal will be based in Lviv, Ukraine, for its opening two games against Germany on June 9 and Denmark on June 13, before the final match against Holland in Kharkiv on June 16.

"It's a complicated group," said Del Bosque. "We have to play a team of prestige in the first match and two that won in the play-offs with authority. We will prepare well for all of them. "It will be a competitive group. I do not know how it is going to go against Italy. We lost 2-1 to them not long ago and they are a strong team."

Bento, who guided Portugal to the finals via the play-offs after a disastrous start to the side's campaign under Carlos Queiroz, struck a note of caution ahead of what he termed "arduous work."

"We will travel to compete," said the Portugal coach. "Now we have to start thinking about how we will approach, above all, the opening match."