The draw was packed with as much glamour as FIFA could muster, but England will be satisfied with the dowdiness they found in its midst. Were it not for his tireless courtesy Sven-Goran Eriksson might have been smug at the prospect of meeting Northern Ireland, and Wales, in addition to Poland, Austria and Azerbaijan.
"I think it is a good draw," the England coach conceded. With regard to his future, he would only state that he hopes to remain in charge, but the Swede did indicate that the lure of fulfilling the greatest dream in football could keep him in the job.
"It is the pinnacle of a manager's career to win the World Cup," he said. "If you look at the age of our players, they should be better this summer than they were in Japan and even better by the time the 2006 World Cup comes around. I think when Adam Crozier sold me the job it was all about 2006."
Although he has few worries over advancing from Group Six of the qualifiers, FA officials will be concerned about the trip to Belfast. The FA executive director David Davies is take advice on security before deciding if a ticket allocation will be accepted for England supporters.
Eriksson has a realistic hope that there will be little trouble for his side on the field. If Scotland had been included in Group Six, instead of confronting Italy in Group Five, the recreation of an annual home international competition that expired in 1984 would have been complete. Wales last met England then, beating them with a goal from Mark Hughes, who is now manager.
"It's been 20 years and many attempts have been made to get the game back," said Hughes, "For whatever reason, it's never happened. We are really grateful FIFA have pulled it off. We have a mini-home international competition in the offing."
The schedule will be agreed when negotitations between the teams take place in Cardiff on January 13th.
Eriksson needs no guide to tell him what to expect in Cardiff. "Wales will want to beat us at all costs," he said, "but we are the same." The Swede is familiar, too, with the place that Poland hold in English minds, having watched the draw at Wembley that cost Alf Ramsey his job and the country its place at the 1974 World Cup.
Jan Tomaszewski's goalkeeping will never be forgotten, but England have not lost to Poland in 10 encounters during five qualifying campaigns over the past 14 years. "It's about time it happened again," Pavel Janus, the Poland coach said with reference to the 2-0 victory in Chorzow in 1973.
Northern Ireland are also short of happy memories. They have not scored a goal for two years and have also lacked a manager since Sammy McIroy stood down. They failed to find the net during their last seven games with England, the most recent of which was a 2-0 loss in Belfast.
But McIlroy, now manager of Second Division Stockport, was delighted with the draw.
"It's a tough group but it's a fantastic group. To have England and Wales in the group is fantastic," he said.
"The Irish people will be happy - their prayers have been answered. It's a great draw for the new manager and there's not really a lot of bad travel either."
McIlroy insisted no opponent should be underestimated, even footballing minnows Azerbaijan. He added: "It's a new one, we've never been there so it's a new ground to go to. There's no easy games at all especially in a competition like this - everyone will be difficult."
Scotland - matched against Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Moldova - at least have some recent form to comfort them. The 6-0 drubbing by Holland in the recent Euro 2004 play-off in Amsterdam was preceded by a 1-0 win over the Dutch that suggested a modest improvement in Berti Vogts's squad.
"We have nothing to fear from Italy," said Vogts combatively. "They are favourites, of course, but we have drawn with Germany at Hampden and won against Holland there so I don't think Italy will be looking forward to coming and playing us."
