Women's World Cup: Wales relish England and long trips, says Jayne Ludlow

Wales will kick-off their 2019 Women's World Cup qualifying campaign with trips to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Four of their opening five Group 1 matches are away, and Wales finish at home against England in August 2018.

They also play Bosnia & Herzegovina but manager Jayne Ludlow says the trips to eastern Europe can be a benefit.

"They give us different types of opportunities because there's a lot of travelling time and we spend more time together as a squad," she said.

The former Arsenal defender says the matches against England will be a major challenge, but added "there's no team we're taking lightly, and there's no team we're afraid of either."

"It's a local derby and it'll be competitive.

"England are the top ranked team in our group but look, from that Pot A of teams all of them are going to be a challenge, they have a fantastic group of players that we have to test ourselves against.

"It's an interesting one because there will be some players on the pitch for England who I played with and have many interesting memories of and I'm friends with.

"So it will be an interesting challenge for myself for the group and for the opponents different reasons."