Midfielder Keith Andrews admits that he and his Ireland colleagues have been handed a tough Euro 2012 group but says they are relishing the chance to take on holders Spain, manager Giovanni Trapattoni’s home country Italy and Croatia.
Andrews says he and his team-mates hoped to draw one of the joint-hosts Poland or Ukraine: "There's no denying it, it's a tough draw. We said before, privately, that if we got one of the host nations, then we'd have taken one of those.
"We've drawn the holders and to pit ourselves against a team like that is fantastic. If you can't look forward to games like this, pitting yourselves against the best players in the world and one of the best teams to have played over the last 20 or 30 years, then there is something wrong."
The on-loan Blackburn man says Italy are team with whom they are familiar, the 31-year-old having scored in a 2-0 friendly victory over the Italians in June: "We know them very well. We played against Italy in the last campaign a couple of times and were unbeaten against them.
"I'm sure the manager will know them inside out. We played Croatia at the start of the season and we're fully aware of their strengths.
"They're a fine footballing side, but with those two teams in particular, we're fully confident we can get a result against them."
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