Traditional rivals Germany and Netherlands will lock horns in a tough group at the 2012 European soccer championship while co-hosts Poland will be hoping that history does not repeat itself when Greece provide the opposition on the opening day next June.
Friday's draw also pitted holders and world champions Spain against Italy with France facing England and co-hosts Ukraine.
The event, the third biggest in global sport after the World Cup and Olympic Games, starts with a reminder of when outsiders Greece gatecrashed the opening day party of 2004 hosts Portugal with a 2-1 win on their way to a stunning tournament triumph. www.mannastores.com
"I hope that does not happen again, we would not want to experience what Portugal experienced on the first day of Euro 2004," Poland coach Franciszek Smuda told reporters looking ahead to the June 8 game in Warsaw.
"This is a good draw for us, it's not a group of death. It's not an easy group either and it will require a lot of effort to advance.
"Greece have a good team. Everything will depend on the first game in the group against them and whether we win it."
The flesh was put on the bones of the biggest sporting event to take place in eastern Europe since the 1980 Moscow Olympics when the 16 finalists were drawn into four groups for the competition which runs from June 8 to July 1 next year.
More than 1.4 million visitors are expected to come to Poland and Ukraine and sample the delights of cities as far apart as Gdansk in northern Poland and Donetsk in southern Ukraine, separated by a distance of around 2,500 kilometres.
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