Fabio Capello insists England have not been handed an 'easy' group

Published on Saturday 5 December 2009 09:42

FABIO CAPELLO believes England's group opponents in next summer's World Cup each offer contrasting styles and insists that there will be no walkovers in South Africa.

Capello has already seen England play friendlies against Group C opponents USA and Slovenia during his time in charge and is planning another against Egypt to prepare the side for their clash against Algeria.

The USA reached the final of the Confederations Cup in South Africa earlier this year, beating Spain on the way, a game which Capello was at.

He said: "The USA are strong physically and technically they are good enough. I saw the game against Spain when they won and it will be no easy game."

Slovenia were beaten 2-1 at Wembley in September but it was no pushover – something they proved by seeing off Russia in the play-offs.

Capello said: "I suffered in the second half when we played against Slovenia in September, I remember it very well.

"Slovenia's style is Balkan, like Yugoslavia. They are technically good, a lot of passes and imagination.

"There will be no easy games – Algeria will also be confident after their exploits against Egypt when they played very well.

"I saw only some moments of the play-off games against Egypt. I saw goals they scored but not too much to understand much about them. For me it's important to see a lot of videos of games they have played."

Capello revealed England are likely to face Egypt in a friendly on March 3 as preparation for facing Algeria and he knows from bitter experience the perils of under-estimating opponents as he played in Italy's disastrous 1974 campaign when the Azzurri went out from a group they were expected to dominate.

He said: "There are other groups that are stronger than ours but I remember when I was a player in Germany in 1974 sometimes you can think the group is easy and it will not be so."