England to face Japan, New Zealand and Mexico next summer.

England were drawn out with Japan, New Zealand and Mexico in Group B for next year's FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, after the draw was made by Adriana Karembeu in the Frankfurt Congress Centre on Monday evening.

Sixteen teams were in the draw and split into four groups with Germany (as hosts), Japan, USA and Brazil occupying one group each, courtesy of their ranking in their own Confederations.

The other 12 nations were drawn at random, although none of the groups could feature more than one team from each geographic region apart from Group A, which has two teams from Europe (Germany plus France).

The World Cup Finals will take place between 26 June and 17 July 2011 and the 32 matches will be played across nine different venues, the highest-ever number of stadiums to be used at a Women’s World Cup.

The anticipation is building rapidly in Germany - reigning European and World champions – as 350,000 tickets have already been purchased before a ball has been drawn.

England's first group match will be against Mexico on Monday 27 June in Wolfsburg.

Speaking about the draw, England Head Coach Hope Powell said: "I've got to be relatively happy; it could have been worse, we could have been in Group A or C"

"We played New Zealand recently in The Peace Cup and we played, and drew with, Japan in the 2007 World Cup. They are a tough side and technically very good.

"Mexico beat us at the U20 World Cup in the summer and they are a rapidly progressing nation. We don't know enough about their Senior team, but we've got plenty of time to do our homework.

"But the priority is to get out of the group, that's our first aim. Every group looks fairly tough and we've all got our work to do. All the games will be tough in a major tournament."

Group A

Germany
Canada
Nigeria
France

Group B

Japan
Mexico
New Zealand
England

Group C

USA
Korea DPR
Colombia
Sweden

Group D

Brazil
Australia
Equatorial Guinea
Norway