Eyes turn to China

Less than three months until Hope Powell's England kick-off their Women's Euro 2005 campaign against Finland at the City of Manchester Stadium, thoughts were momentarily diverted this afternoon to the 2007 FIFA World Cup in China.

At UEFA Headquarters in Nyon today, after the dust had settled on the Champions League and UEFA Cup draws, the 2005/07 European Qualifying Competition draw for the the 5th FIFA Women's World Cup resulted in England being placed in a group with France, Holland, Hungary and Austria.

England Head Coach Hope Powell's told TheFA.com: "It's a tough draw but it could have been worse.

"Obviously avoiding Germany and Sweden was good, but watching France in the third place play-off against Sweden in the Algarve Cup on Tuesday, they have definitely improved since they defeated us in the 2003 World Cup play-off.

"I've spoken to the Dutch camp since the draw as we met twice in friendlies in September last year, and I know their coach will have their players really geared up to meet us again.

"Hungary and Austria are the more unknown quantities, but we'll get a chance to look at some of the talented Hungarians youngsters when they host the UEFA U19 European Championship in July, which we hope to qualify for.

"Austria are one of the lowest ranked teams in today's draw, but they gained 'promotion' to the upper tier of European Women's football last year. We will respect them as an emerging nation and certainly not take anyone for granted, but have to be confident of the progress we too have made over the past two to three years."

The European Associations were divided into five pots based on their rankings, which in turn were based on the results achieved in the qualifying competition of the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup as well as their results in the qualifying competition of the UEFA European Women's Championship 2003/05.

England, ranked ninth were in Pot B and will take on France from Pot A, the Netherlands from Pot C, Hungary from Pot D and Austria from Pot E. The winner of each of the five groups of five teams will qualify for the next World Cup.

The draw (Pots in brackets)

There are also three further groups in the Second Tier containing four teams. These teams will compete to take place in promotion/relegation play-offs against the five fifth-ranked teams in the first division, in order to determine divisional status for the 2007/09 European Women's Championship.