England begin their Euro 2012 campaign against rivals France this evening and forward Jeremy Menez feels that Roy Hodgson’s side will be difficult to beat.

Speaking exclusively to Sport-locker.net he said that some of his French teammates are however well placed to know what to expect from England.

He said: “England are tough opponents to come up against in the group stages of any tournament and we know we’ll have to be playing very well to beat them. Some of our players like Samir Nasri and Patrice Evra play in the Premier League so we’ll be looking to them for information on the England squad and their playing style.”

And the forward was keen to highlight just how excited he was about the tournament.

“Euro 2012 will be my first tournament for France and I’m honoured to be representing my country in Poland and the Ukraine.

“We feel like we have a strong squad going into the competition but there are no easy games for us and we know we’ll have to play to our potential to progress through to the later stages.

“The Premier League is one of the best in the world and I know from my international colleagues about the strength of certain players like Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker. However, we have a strong squad ourselves – I’ve played with the likes of Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Karim Benzema for many years now so I hope we can combine to do well at the tournament.”

With England’s star man Wayne Rooney missing, Menez was quick to suggest that England will still be a strong outfit.

“In terms of players, the England captain Steven Gerrard is a great player and can really change a game. England are missing Wayne Rooney but still have players like Ashley Young are we’ll have to be wary of.”

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