Italy Has Tough Draw

World Cup runner-up Italy wound up in the same group as Germany, and England wound up with games against Scotland and the Netherlands in the draw for next summer’s European Championship.

Soccer’s second-most prestigious event expands from eight to 16 teams next summer, and will be played in eight English cities from June 8-30.

Here is how the teams are grouped:

A: England, Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland

B: Bulgaria, France, Romania, Spain

C: Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Russia

D: Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey

Each team will play its three group opponents, and the top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. From there, the tournament is played in a knockout format.

London oddsmakers chose The Netherlands to win it all.