Euro 2012 Friendlies Wrap: Netherlands, Denmark, England and Others in Action

With Euro 2012 right around the corner, Europe's international teams are in full swing, testing out their last-minute tactical and personnel changes before the big tournament kicks off. For us, that means lots of goals and plenty to analyze.

Poland recorded a resounding 4-0 win, but it came over little Andorra, while Denmark recorded a more impressive 2-0 victory over Australia.

England overcame Belgium by a slender 1-0, while the Netherlands destroyed Northern Ireland 6-0. In the final two Euro-prep international matches of the day, Portugal failed to impress once again versus Turkey, while Croatia played out a subdued 1-1 draw with Norway.

What did we learn from these friendlies? Which teams are ready for Euro 2012, and which teams need to work out some serious flaws before the tournament gets underway? We'll uncover that and more as we analyze each friendly separately.

Even though they are co-hosts for Euro 2012, not many have considered Poland to be a major threat at Euro 2012. With this most recent result, though, Group A will need to be wary of how dangerous Poland's national team can be.

Sure, Andorra are a small team with little talent to threaten any opponent, but the potency of Poland's offense in this game shouldn't be completely disregarded because of that.

In just under 40 minutes, Poland effectively finished off the match. Marcin Wasilewski's penalty in the 77th minute was just the cherry on top of a big win.

In addition to Jakub Blaszczykowski, Robert Lewandowski and Lukasz Piszczek, all of whom were key members of Borussia Dortmund's title-winning squad this past season, Poland have major rising talents in the form of Artur Sobiech and Rafal Wolski.

Ludovic Obraniak, who scored the opener against Andorra, is also a highly dangerous player.

Poland may not have quality in every part of the pitch, but they've won all three of their Euro 2012 prep matches, and drew with Portugal in their only other international match of 2012. They're ready, and will punish anyone who dares to underestimate them.

If there's one team nobody thinks will make the knockout rounds of Euro 2012, it's Denmark.

Denmark, considered a fairly solid national team in international football, have been drawn in Group B with Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal. They face a massive struggle to take any points in the group.

But Danish fans will have hope that their team can build on a good performance versus Australia to steal points off their more favored opponents. This could especially be true against a team like Portugal, whose preparations have not gone according to plan (more on that later).

Excellent link-up play between Christian Eriksen, Daniel Agger and another Denmark teammate forced Australia to concede a penalty by fouling Agger in the center of the box. The big Danish captain stepped up and converted his penalty with ease.

It wasn't smooth sailing from there, though. Australia rebounded and threatened to score on multiple occasions, before substitute Andreas Bjelland put the game to bed with another goal for Denmark in the 68th minute.

If Denmark manage to pick up any points at Euro 2012, expect Christian Eriksen to be at the center of Denmark's attacking play. He's already their best player, and at the age of 20, will only get better.

And of course, Nicklas Bendtner will determine to a great extent how his team does as well. He missed a number of sitters for Denmark against Australia; he'll need to follow up his good play with good finishing if Denmark are to cause some upsets in Group B.

Well, Hodgson's two trial-run matches with England are done, and it seems that we now know what to expect: England will rely on tough, gritty tactics to win their matches by slim margins. 

Two 1-0 wins versus Norway and Belgium aren't the best way to prepare for Euro 2012, but things could be much worse. England are currently coping with a number of injuries and multiple out-of-form players, so the end result will be all that counts for Hodgson...for now.

Danny Welbeck started up front as the lone striker for this match, and with much of the focus on him, he was fairly impressive.

Even though the game was often played at a dull pace, Welbeck was full of energy. He excellently chipped the ball into the goal in the 36th minute after being played through by Manchester United teammate Ashley Young.

Unfortunately for all involved, the game's action ended there. England defended tightly, and didn't have enough creativity to threaten Belgium on offense. Belgium, meanwhile, controlled a great deal of possession, but were stifled by England's high-pressure defense.

There are definitely many questions still needing answers from England as they head off to Poland and Ukraine. With an opening match versus France, England will need to find the answers as soon as possible.

On the positive side, though, Danny Welbeck looks like he'll be first choice for England at the Euros. The prospect of him and Wayne Rooney partnering each other, as they do for Manchester United, is very exciting.

Eduardo's strike in the 79th minute looked to have secured Croatia their second consecutive international win. A last-minute strike from Tarik Elyounoussi ended Croatia's Euro 2012 preparations on a disappointing note and raised doubts about Croatia's defense.

The goal was a particularly poor one to concede, as it came on probably the last corner of the game.

One shouldn't read too much into this result, though. It seems as though Slaven Bilic decided to take the Estonia friendly seriously and experiment in this one, as players like Eduardo, Niko Kranjcar and Ivica Olic were all brought off the bench rather than started.

Most of Croatia's usual starters in defense were also left on the bench for this one.

Maybe it's part of Bilic's strategy not to reveal Croatia's true strength before the tournament. Whatever the reason for benching almost half of his starters, he'll need to beat Ireland in the first game of Group C to have hope of progressing to the next round of the competition.

After a difficult loss to Bayern Munich and an embarrassing one against Bulgaria, the Netherlands finally seem to be back to their best with a 6-0 win over Northern Ireland.

Of course, as with Poland's big win over Andorra, big-margin wins over weak international teams have to be viewed through a different lens than most international matches. Still, there was much to celebrate in this emphatic victory for the Dutch.

For one, the Netherlands kept their second consecutive clean sheet, a feat which has been hard for the Dutch to manage in recent games in light of their weak and constantly shifting defense.

Secondly, Ibrahim Afellay had a fantastic match, signalling his recovery from his Barcelona injury troubles. Sneijder, who also had an up-and-down season at Inter, also played well.

Most importantly, Robin van Persie staked a strong claim for the starting spot ahead of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar with two goals and two assists, although Huntelaar was brought on when the match was already well and truly over in the 57th minute.

Will the Netherlands' good form in their last two matches translate into a strong opening win over Denmark? In the group of death, every game is a must-win; the Dutch will have to start strong and finish strong if they hope to meet the high expectations set for them in this tournament.

As if a 0-0 draw versus Macedonia wasn't bad enough, Portugal finished their Euro 2012 preparations in the worst way, with a 3-1 loss to Turkey.

What was really bad about this game was that it wasn't Turkey's great play that beat Portugal; it was Portugal who effectively beat themselves.

Cristiano Ronaldo went back to trying to do too much on his own once Turkey went ahead, and that approach led Turkey to go even further ahead in the 52nd minute.

When Portugal got back in the game with a goal from Nani and a penalty awarded to Ronaldo, Ronaldo uncharacteristically wasted the penalty. To make things much worse, Pepe would score an own goal in the 88th minute to the benefit of Turkey, ending the match in the worst possible way.

Ever since Ricardo Carvalho walked out on Portugal, there have been serious doubts about Paul Bento's ability to lead the national team. Those doubts look much more legitimate now.

Bruno Alves, the man who has been selected to fill the gap left by Ricardo Carvalho, made a crucial mistake today that allowed Umut Bulut to get the ball on the edge of the box and put Turkey up 2-0 versus Portugal.

His partner in defense, Pepe, didn't put in a much more convincing performance.

It may be a stretch to say that Portugal are in shambles, but the performance they put on against Turkey was not a performance of a team looking to beat one of Germany or the Netherlands to a place in the knockout rounds of Euro 2012.

Unless they make major improvements, Portugal could find themselves finishing fourth in the group of death.