England take on France in the Donbass Arena in Donetsk Monday in the tie of Group D. The neighboring countries have a long competitive history and that will be continued today as each team tries to take a grip of the group.

The match can be watched live on ESPN and can be live streamed on ESPN3 (link below).

The winners of the game will have one foot in the quarter-finals, with the losers probably being left needing to win their final two games to make it through. A draw of course would leave the group wide open.

England qualified for Euro 2012 in style, coming through their group unbeaten, however, since that time they have been in trouble on numerous levels. Manager Fabio Capello resigned, and new boss Roy Hodgson has had just over a month to prepare for this tournament. The England squad has also had a number of players pulling out with injury, including the experienced Frank Lampard. To make matters worse their best player Wayne Rooney is banned for the first two matches after picking up a red card in England's last competitive match.

Hodgson has said, "There is nothing we can do to take that weight from our shoulders, except to embrace Euro 2012 and make certain we are not afraid of it. We have to believe in ourselves and the players should go out as they do every week in the Premier League in similarly pressurized situations playing in front of 50, 60, 70,000 fans with quite a lot of expectation and weight on their shoulders."

France has had the better of results between the two teams in recent years, winning their last three encounters. Despite France's better record against England in recent years, Hodgson remains confident. He has told the BBC, "I'm happy with what we've achieved in these first 39 days. I don't think the players could have worked harder for me in the training sessions to become a team. You could say we haven't had as long as we would have liked to put the team together but, on the other hand, these lads have played with each other on many other occasions.

"I'm not convinced if we had had more time we would have been better prepared."

The England vs. France game kicks off at 12 p.m. ET, and will be screened live from the Donbass Arena in Donetsk live on ESPN. It can also be watched live online through streaming on ESPN3 by clicking HERE.

Tags: euro 2012 European Championship