UEFA Euro Cup 2016 Predictions; Who Are the Winners of the Group Draw?

UEFA announced the groups for the UEFA 2016 qualifiers, featuring a number of interesting matchups. Inevitably the big teams will earn the spotlight when analysis about these groups comes about. Some top teams inevitably came away with a solid draws in the qualifiers while other teams wound up with the short straw. Here are the major winners of the draw.

England & Switzerland: The Three Lions landed arguably the easiest group in the entire qualifying round. Their opponents will include San Marino, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland and Slovenia. The only team to present any major challenge from this group is Switzerland. However, few would give the Swiss the advantage over England in this group. Two sides automatically get berths in this tournament so that does not create too many issues for England; the top two sides automatically qualifying while the best third place team also gets an automatic berth.

Aside from Switzerland none of the other teams qualified for the World Cup from this group. Estonia had two victories in 10 games. Slovenia had five wins in an "easy" group that included Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Albania and Cyprus. Lithuania only had three wins in the World Cup qualifiers in another relatively easy group. And San Marino was the worst team in the qualifiers with only one goal scored in 10 matches and a whopping 54 conceded; San Marino lost 5-0 and 8-0 against England in their two qualifying matches.

All in all this should be easy for the English.

That said, Switzerland should also be content with their draw. They are viewed as a "weak" European side when compared to the other major powerhouses; fortunately they will likely finish first or second in this group regardless of whether they beat England or not.

Greece and the remainder of Group F: The Greeks qualified for the World Cup thanks to a big playoff win over Romania; they will get a chance to renew that rivalry in this tournament. Aside from the Romanians Greece really has an easy path to France. Finland managed two wins from eight games against such sides as Georgia, Belarus, Spain and France; the team only scored five goals. Northern Ireland seems like a tough side but that team only won one match in the World Cup qualifiers and managed to concede 17 goals. Hungary finished behind Romania in Group D with 17 points and five wins from 10 matches. They are also a tough side but they did concede 20 goals in the round, including eight against the Dutch; this team is not as a tight defensively as the Greeks. The Faroe Islands will be the group's minnow and should allow the top sides to run rampant; this team earned one point in all of qualifying and conceded 29 goals throughout the campaign.

Aside from Greece there is no clear second-place side; that means that the other five teams have a big chance to make a run at second or third place in this group. Romania, Hungary and Finland are probably the favorites to compete, making this an interesting group.

Portugal and the rest of Group I: Cristiano Ronaldo and company drew a rather easy side that includes Albania, Armenia, Serbia, Denmark and France. Since France qualified, any match against the hosts will not count. Serbia is an interesting side that managed 14 points in qualifiers but failed to capitalize on a group that included Belgium, Croatia, Scotland, Wales, and Macedonia. Denmark finished second in Group B behind Italy and should provide the biggest challenge in the group for Portugal. Armenia finished with 13 points in qualifying with a record of four wins, one draw and five losses. Albania finished with 11 points in qualifiers.

Portugal was poor in the World Cup qualifiers but this team is the clear-cut favorite to win this group. The race for second place is an interesting situation as any one of these teams can really make a case to win it. All of them had rather competent qualifiers and all play relatively decent defense.

Who were the biggest winners of the UEFA Euro 2016 draw?