© AFP

Slaven Bilic, Croatia (Coach):
"It's the hardest opponent we could face. I wanted to avoid [England] of course. We have a very difficult group as we got the top teams from the different pots in Ukraine and England. I respect England a lot and I really wanted to avoid them but we are not afraid."

David Beckham, England (Midfielder):
"It's a group with some very tough teams in there and obviously Croatia's in there again and we have to try to get our own back. But it's important that we go into the qualifiers now with a positive frame of mind, there's going to be obviously a new manager in place by then I'm sure so we'll have to wait and see."

Brian Barwick, England (Chief Executive):
"My first reaction was that the group involves a lot of travel. My second was that it included the odd banana-skin. And thirdly, it has a big team who have beaten us twice in our last two games. Our next competitive game is the first game of this group and we have to make sure the players cross the field feeling really good about themselves. That's a genuine issue for the new manager. We also have to realise that when teams are playing against England, it's a superbly big occasion for them. We have to get the team better organised on the field and sort that out but we have no timeframe for appointing a new manager."

Andrei Bal, Ukraine (Assistant Coach):
"Am I happy with the draw? No, not particularly. I think it could have been a lot better for us, but you accept it and move on. We did well in qualifying for the last World Cup but we have let ourselves down in EURO qualifying, albeit in a very tough group with France, Italy and Scotland. Now we have England and Croatia - and I have to say I think we have a chance. But there is no doubt we will need to improve."

Bernd Stange, Belarus (Coach):
"We've obviously got to be pleased, ending up in a top group with teams like England, Croatia and Ukraine. We're currently putting a new team together full of young players and led by Aliaksandr Hleb as captain. We'll obviously be looking to create a few surprises. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to do what Iraq did?!"