LONDON (AP) - Sven-Goran Eriksson blamed fate for pitting his England team once more against his homeland Sweden in Friday's draw for next year's World Cup finals.
England avoided the heavyweights and was also drawn against Paraguay, which it beat at the 1986 World Cup, and debutante Trinidad and Tobago.
"They are difficult games, but I am happy with the group," Eriksson told BBC television from the draw in Leipzig, Germany. "It could have been worse, much worse."
Eriksson also was in charge when England drew 1-1 with Sweden at the 2002 World Cup. England hasn't beaten Sweden in 11 matches since 1968.
"It's destiny, I suppose," Eriksson said. "I thought with statistics that we shouldn't have drawn them because we played them at the last World Cup but that's life and sooner or later we have to beat them."
Sweden was confident its record would stay intact.
"It seems it's fate that we'll play them again and again," said Sweden midfielder Niclas Alexandersson, who scored against England in 2002. "But we have good statistics against them. We know them well and we know it's a team that we can beat."
England captain David Beckham said he was happy with the draw.
"Paraguay are a bit of an unknown quantity, but we will be prepared fully when we meet them," Beckham told England's Football Association website. "To use an old football cliche, there are no easy games. We have to go out and prove we are one of the favourites."
Eriksson was happy to have avoided the Netherlands and Australia, which has a long-standing sporting rivalry with England. England has beaten Paraguay in both their previous meetings, but never played Trinidad and Tobago.
"At least on paper, we are the favourites together with Sweden to go through, but you never know," he said.
Nine Trinidad and Tobago players play on English clubs, including West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, but Eriksson said he'd never seen the country play.
"I am buzzing," Hislop told BBC Radio. "We weren't too fussed about who we drew - we knew we were going to get hard games but it was the one we really wanted because there are so many players over here.
"Countries like us bring something to the World Cup."
Beckham said he was looking forward to playing Trinidad's best-known player - his former Manchester United teammate Dwight Yorke
"He is someone who I share many great memories with," Beckham said.
If England advances from the group, it will meet one of the top two teams from Group A - which contains Germany, Poland, Ecuador and Costa Rica. England has a long rivalry with Germany, and it beat Poland twice in the qualifying for this World Cup.
"Germany will win their group," Eriksson said. "They are in a rather easy group. They are the host nation, that's why I think they will win it. It's better to play Poland than Germany. We will be trying to win the group."
Eriksson may not need to worry. At the 2002 finals in South Korea and Japan, it advanced from a group including Sweden, Argentina and Nigeria. England reached the quarter-finals, but lost to Brazil. It also reached the quarter-finals of the 2004 European Championship, losing to Portugal.
England, which was the first drawn out of the pots at the draw, and plays Paraguay on June 10 in Frankfurt, Trinidad and Tobago on June 15 in Nuremberg, and Sweden on June 20 in Cologne.