European Championship 2012: Contenders with Toughest Road to Quarterfinals

The European Championship is just getting underway, but a few contenders already find themselves in a less than ideal position. 

This means these teams need to pull out something special in a hurry as this tournament will be advancing from group play in no time. 

Here are three teams that have their work cut out for them. 

Netherlands

The Netherlands entered this tournament with big expectations. They had a chance to get a slight measure of revenge on Spain for their loss in the last World Cup final.  

The draw didn't do Netherlands any favors. They landed in the brutal Group B with Germany, Portugal and Denmark. 

The Netherlands opened up group play with Denmark, and they lost. They are now in a huge hole as they are sitting at 0-1 and they still have to play Portugal and Germany. 

Netherlands will now likely need at least a draw against the mighty Germans if they want to advance. 

Portugal

Portugal is staring at a similar situation as Netherlands. They are in Group B and started off play with a loss. 

The big difference here is that theirs came against Germany. This gives Portugal a shred of hope as they still have the weaker Denmark side to play. 

The problem is that Portugal didn't look particularly good against Germany. They only lost by a goal, but Germany was not crisp and the Portugal attack fell completely flat in their shutout loss. 

England

England is still waiting to play their first match, but when it comes to major tournaments, England's path to advancing should be considered difficult until they prove otherwise. 

England did not get an excessively tough draw. They are in Group D with Ukraine, Sweden and France. 

However, this draw puts expectations on England's shoulders. They are the highest ranked team in this group, and living up to expectations is something they have really struggled with. 

They also open with a France team that has not lost in their last 21 matches. England could easily start off with a blemish, and that would turn the pressure up on them to a level they would not be able to handle.