Euro 2012 Schedule: Teams That Must Find Redemption for Early Struggles

In a major tournament such as the 2012 European Championships, teams will always have some first-match jitters.

Those jitters cause a team to not put on their best performance, and when there is so much great competition involved, one false move can lead to an unsightly result.

There are numerous teams in the hunt for the Euro Cup that need to redeem themselves for their early struggles if they want to make any noise in the later stages in the tournament.

Here are three of those teams.

Netherlands

The Dutch put themselves in a very precarious position when they suffered a 1-0 loss to Denmark on Saturday. Bert van Marwijk's offense is constantly touted as the team's strength, but nobody on the attack could find the back of the net, despite numerous chances.

Holland's downfall in the opener was the result of Robin van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and the rest of the attackers only being able to put five of their 30 shots on goal.

If the Dutch don't remember how to finish in their next matchup on June 13 against Germany, they're going to find themselves in a hole that would be impossible to get out of.

The Danes' win was well deserved, but the Netherlands should never have put themselves in the dire straits that they did. Denmark has a great defense, but the Dutch have too many world-class players to find themselves with a goose egg on the board after 90 minutes.

Holland's next match against Germany will surely be the pivotal point of the tournament for van Marwijk's boys. If they can come out and get a win, it could give them the momentum needed to scratch and claw their way out of the Group of Death. If they lose, though, they'll be hard-pressed to advance to the knockout stages.

Portugal

The Portuguese find themselves in the Group of Death with the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. A 1-0 loss to Germany isn't an embarrassing defeat, but teams need convincing victories in major tournaments on the international stage.

On the bright side for Portugal, Saturday's performance was nowhere near the best they can do.

Cristiano Ronaldo was close to invisible for most of the match, further supporting the grumblings that he can get the job done for Real Madrid but not for his country. If he can turn it up in the team's match against Denmark, Portugal may be able to drag themselves out of the doldrums of the group and finish in the top two.

Another one of the team's best players, Nani, put on a performance to forget as well. He played more to his weakness than his strength, though, as he did much more dribbling than passing. He wouldn't be getting grilled if he didn't give the ball back to Germany more than he kept possession while dribbling.

Even though Portugal fans knew that this group was a failure waiting to happen, they'll still be furious if their squad doesn't redeem itself in the next game.

Spain

Spain is the best team in the world, but they didn't play that way against Italy on Sunday. If they don't come out and trounce the Irish—like they should—in their next match, there's going to be a lot of disappointed fans for the players to go home to.

The Spanish were supposed to run through this tournament, but now that they took a 1-1 draw against Italy, there are inklings that they are not the team they used to be. They are still the team to beat in this tournament, but the competition knows that they can, in fact, be beat.

It's hardly possible to predict the Irish beating Spain, but if they do, Spain might not make it out of the group. As the defending champions, they need to prove to the other teams that they are still the squad to beat. There's no better way to do so than to win the next two games in high-powered fashion.