Roy Hodgson has said England's players are not "cowed" by the prospect of meeting a France side on a 21-game unbeaten run in their opening Euro 2012 clash.

The French have been revitalised under Laurent Blanc following the unrest surrounding the squad at the 2010 World Cup and defeated England 2-1 in a friendly at Wembley 18 months ago.

But head coach Hodgson said: "The players think we can beat France. There's no question about that. There's no fear in that respect... In any league, 21 matches unbeaten is an achievement. But I don't get the feeling the players are cowed by the task. They're more motivated in a way."

He added: "There's healthy respect for the team, as they deserve to have. We know their players and their qualities. We come across them every week and you just respect someone if you go 21 matches unbeaten."

"It may be quite nice for them to go into a game where people are saying 'it will be tough and France are a better team than you'," he said. "Quite often they go into games and people say 'you've got to beat these'. That's the kind of pressure a lot of our players are under.

"I would think they'll probably quite enjoy the fact that the 'favourite' position is now being taken from us and given to France. We know we can give them a good game, no question."

Hodgson is aware he is thought of as a cautious coach, but knows ultimately results are what matter.

He said: "If you are lucky enough to work with a team that can defend well and not concede many goals, then quite often you will be called a cautious coach, I suppose. But the important thing is to win matches and we all know you've got to be one hell of a team at this top level.

"If your ability to defend is so poor you are likely to concede two, three, four goals a game, you have to have players on your team who are certain to score three, four, five every game to get you out of mischief. The bottom line is I'm a pragmatic coach in the sense that I like to win and I know I can't win by asking my forwards to score three or four goals."

Hodgson has still to finalise his side, although he confirmed the back four, two central midfielders and Ashley Young had been decided upon. He said: "The choice of wide midfielders and the other centre-forward to partner Ashley Young, they're the ones I've had to give thought to."