Euro 2012 Results: Czech Republic Run Will End Quickly in Knockout Stage

The Czech Republic has already had an impressive performance at Euro 2012 to win Group A, but the team's run will end soon.

A week ago, reaching this stage barely seemed possible. In the second overall match of the European Championships, Russia defeated the Czechs by a score of 4-1. It seemed every time the Russians had an opportunity in the offensive zone, they put the ball in the back of the net.

Four days later, the team got out to an early lead and cleaned up the defense to get back in the group race with a win over Greece. A victory in the third match over Poland, the host country, was enough for the squad to not only advance but win the group.

Reaching the quarterfinals is a significant achievement for this group. FIFA's world rankings has the Czech Republic ranked No. 27 coming into the tournament, behind 15 other European teams. Russia and Greece were each among the top 15 in the world.

Hopefully for this team, the positive results will be able to bring the country back to the success it showed in years past.

Unfortunately, a continued run deep into the tournament is unlikely.

As Group A winners, the next match will be against the runner-up from Group B. Nicknamed the "group of death," Group B features four of the best national teams in the world. Anyone from the group of Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Denmark could not only advance to the quarterfinals, but can go deep in the knockout stage as well.

These teams feature some of the best scorers in the world, something Greece and Poland could not match. The offenses will likely be too much to handle for a defense that has given up five goals in Euro 2012 and had zero shutouts in three international friendlies prior to the tournament.

The Czech Republic has already exceeded expectations to get to this point, but advancing any further would be one of the bigger upsets in a long time.