2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Mistrzostwa Europy U-21 w Piłce Nożnej 2017
Tournament details
Host country Poland
Dates16–30 June
Teams12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Germany (2nd title)
Runners-up Spain
Tournament statistics
Matches played21
Goals scored65 (3.1 per match)
Attendance244,085 (11,623 per match)
Top scorer(s)Spain Saúl (5 goals)
Best player(s)Spain Dani Ceballos
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2019 →

The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2017) was the 21st edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, a biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. The final tournament was hosted in Poland for the first time, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 26 January 2015 in Nyon, Switzerland.[1] The tournament took place from 16–30 June 2017.[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1994 were eligible for the tournament.

In March 2012, UEFA announced that the competition would take place in even numbered years from 2016 onwards.[3] In September 2013, UEFA announced its intention to continue holding the final tournament in odd numbered years following a request from its member national football associations.[4] On 24 January 2014, UEFA confirmed that the final tournament would be held in 2017 and that it would be expanded from 8 teams to 12.[5]

Hosts

[edit]

The hosts were announced at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Nyon on 26 January 2015. In late April 2014, the Polish Football Association very strongly indicated the country has high chances to host the tournament. Bidding to welcome Europe's best youth teams was one of the reasons for Poland's withdrawal from the UEFA Euro 2020 race.[6]

Qualification

[edit]
Main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

A total of 53 UEFA nations entered the competition (Gibraltar did not enter, as per usual), and with the hosts Poland qualifying automatically, the other 52 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament.[7] The qualifying competition, which took place from March 2015 to November 2016, consisted of two rounds:[8]

  • Qualifying group stage: The 52 teams are drawn into nine groups – seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. Each group is played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.
  • Play-offs: The four teams are drawn into two ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last two qualified teams.

Qualified teams

[edit]

The following 12 teams qualified for the final tournament.[9]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).

Team Method of qualification Date of qualification Finals appearance Last appearance Previous best performance
 Poland Hosts 26 January 2015 6th 1994 Quarter-finals (1982, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994)
 Portugal Group 4 winners 6 September 2016 8th 2015 Runners-up (1994, 2015)
 Denmark Group 5 winners 6 September 2016 7th 2015 Semi-finals (1992, 2015)
 England Group 9 winners 6 October 2016 14th 2015 Winners (1982, 1984)
 Slovakia Group 8 winners 6 October 2016 2nd
(8th incl. Czechoslovakia)		 2000 Fourth place (2000)
 Germany Group 7 winners 7 October 2016 11th 2015 Winners (2009)
 Czech Republic Group 1 winners 7 October 2016 7th
(13th incl. Czechoslovakia)		 2015 Winners (2002)
 Sweden Group 6 winners 10 October 2016 8th 2015 Winners (2015)
 Italy Group 2 winners 11 October 2016 19th 2015 Winners (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)
 Macedonia Group 3 winners 11 October 2016 1st — Debut
 Spain Play-off winners 15 November 2016 13th 2013 Winners (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013)
 Serbia Play-off winners 15 November 2016 6th
(10th incl. Yugoslavia)		 2015 Runners-up (2004, 2007)
Winners (1978 as Yugoslavia)

Final draw

[edit]

The final draw was held on 1 December 2016, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), at the ICE Congress Centre in Kraków.[10][11] The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying play-offs, with the hosts Poland assigned to position A1 in the draw. Each group contained either the hosts or one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2, and two teams from Pot 3.[12][13]

Hosts (Position A1)
Team Coeff
 Poland 28,102
Pot 1
Team Coeff
 Germany 39,037
 Portugal 38,378
Pot 2
Team Coeff
 England 36,621
 Spain 36,536
 Denmark 35,590
Pot 3
Team Coeff
 Italy 35,546
 Sweden 34,259
 Czech Republic 33,690
 Serbia 31,060
 Slovakia 31,057
 Macedonia 23,283

Venues

[edit]

On 7 June 2016, Polish Football Association selected six venues:[14]
The capacities listed below were the tournament capacity and does not necessarily reflect the maximum capacity of the stadiums.[15]

Opening match and Group A Group A Group B
Lublin Kielce Gdynia
Arena Lublin Kolporter Arena Stadion GOSiR
Capacity: 15,247 Capacity: 14,733 Capacity: 14,769
Group B Group C, semifinal, and Final Group C and semifinal
Bydgoszcz Kraków Tychy
Kompleks Sportowy Zawisza Stadion Cracovia Stadion Miejski
Capacity: 11,585 Capacity: 14,715 Capacity: 14,805

Match officials

[edit]

In February 2017, UEFA selected nine referees and their teams for this tournament.

Country Referee 1st assistant referee 2nd assistant referee Additional assistant referee Additional assistant referee
 Austria Harald Lechner Andreas Heidenreich Maximilian Kolbitsch Alexander Harkam Julian Weinberger
 Spain Jesús Gil Manzano Ángel Nevado Rodríguez Diego Berbero Sevilla Carlos del Cerro Grande Juan Martínez Munuera
 France Benoît Bastien Hicham Zakrani Frédéric Haquette Benoît Millot Jérôme Miguelgorry
 Germany Tobias Stieler Rafael Foltyn Jan Seidel Daniel Siebert Benjamin Brand
 Lithuania Gediminas Mažeika Vytautas Šimkus Vytenis Kazlauskas Donatas Rumšas Robertas Valikonis
 Netherlands Serdar Gözübüyük Bas van Dongen Joost van Zuilen Dennis Higler Jeroen Manschot
 Scotland Bobby Madden David McGeachie Alastair Mather Andrew Dallas Donald Robertson
 Slovakia Ivan Kružliak Tomáš Somoláni Branislav Hancko Peter Kráľovič Filip Glova
 Slovenia Slavko Vinčić Tomaž Klančnik Andraž Kovačič Rade Obrenović Roberto Ponis
  • 4th officials:
Country 4th official
 Poland Marcin Borkowski
 Russia Igor Demeshko
 Israel Roy Hassan
 Poland Michał Obukowicz

Squads

[edit]
Main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player.[8]

Group stage

[edit]

The group winners and the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 18.01 and 18.02):[8]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
  8. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
  9. UEFA coefficient for the final draw.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).[16]

Group A

[edit]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  England 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4 7 Knockout stage
2  Slovakia 3 2 0 1 6 3 +3 6
3  Sweden 3 0 2 1 2 5 −3 2
4  Poland (H) 3 0 1 2 3 7 −4 1
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Sweden 0–0 England
Report
Attendance: 11,672[17]
Poland 1–2 Slovakia
  • Lipski 1'
 Report
Attendance: 14,911[17]
Slovakia 1–2 England
 Report
Attendance: 12,087[17]
Poland 2–2 Sweden
 Report
Attendance: 14,651[17]
England 3–0 Poland
 Report
Attendance: 13,176[17]
Slovakia 3–0 Sweden
 Report
Attendance: 11,203[17]

Group B

[edit]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Spain 3 3 0 0 9 1 +8 9 Knockout stage
2  Portugal 3 2 0 1 7 5 +2 6
3  Serbia 3 0 1 2 2 5 −3 1
4  Macedonia 3 0 1 2 4 11 −7 1
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Portugal 2–0 Serbia
 Report
Attendance: 10,724[17]
Spain 5–0 Macedonia
 Report
Attendance: 8,269[17]
Serbia 2–2 Macedonia
 Report
Attendance: 5,121[17]
Portugal 1–3 Spain
 Report
Attendance: 13,862[17]
Macedonia 2–4 Portugal
 Report
Attendance: 7,533[17]
Serbia 0–1 Spain
Report
Attendance: 12,058[17]

Group C

[edit]

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Italy 3 2 0 1 4 3 +1 6 Knockout stage
2  Germany 3 2 0 1 5 1 +4 6
3  Denmark 3 1 0 2 4 7 −3 3
4  Czech Republic 3 1 0 2 5 7 −2 3
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Germany 2–0 Czech Republic
 Report
Attendance: 14,051[17]
Denmark 0–2 Italy
Report
Attendance: 8,754[17]
Czech Republic 3–1 Italy
 Report
Attendance: 13,251[17]
Germany 3–0 Denmark
 Report
Attendance: 9,298[17]
Italy 1–0 Germany
 Report
Attendance: 14,039[17]
Czech Republic 2–4 Denmark
 Report
Attendance: 9,047[17]

Ranking of second-placed teams

[edit]
Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 C  Germany 3 2 0 1 5 1 +4 6 Knockout stage
2 A  Slovakia 3 2 0 1 6 3 +3 6
3 B  Portugal 3 2 0 1 7 5 +2 6
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient (Regulations Article 18.03).[8]

The match-ups of the semi-finals depended on which runner-up qualified (Regulations Article 17.02):[8]

  Scenario according to the qualified team
Best runner-up from Best runner-up plays Other semi-final
Group A Winner Group B Winner Group A vs Winner Group C
Group B Winner Group A Winner Group B vs Winner Group C
Group C Winner Group A Winner Group B vs Winner Group C

Knockout stage

[edit]

In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.[8]

On 2 May 2016, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board's trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time.[18]

Bracket

[edit]
 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
27 June – Tychy
 
 
 England2 (3)
 
30 June – Kraków
 
 Germany (p)2 (4)
 
 Germany1
 
27 June – Kraków
 
 Spain0
 
 Spain3
 
 
 Italy1
 

Semi-finals

[edit]
England 2–2 (a.e.t.) Germany
 Report
Penalties
 3–4
Attendance: 13,214[17]
Spain 3–1 Italy
 Report
Attendance: 13,105[17]

Final

[edit]
Main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final
Germany 1–0 Spain
 Report
Attendance: 14,059[19]

Goalscorers

[edit]

There were 65 goals scored in 21 matches, for an average of 3.1 goals per match.

5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal

Source: UEFA.com[20]

Awards

[edit]

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Team of the tournament

[edit]

After the tournament, the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.[23]

Position Player
Goalkeeper Germany Julian Pollersbeck
Defenders Germany Jeremy Toljan
Slovakia Milan Škriniar
Germany Niklas Stark
Germany Yannick Gerhardt
Midfielders Germany Maximilian Arnold
Spain Dani Ceballos
Germany Max Meyer
Spain Saúl
Forwards Spain Marco Asensio
Italy Federico Bernardeschi

Sponsorship

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Poland to host 2017 Under-21 EUROs". UEFA.com. 26 January 2015.
  2. ^ "Cardiff to host 2017 UEFA Champions League final". UEFA.org. 30 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  3. ^ "Czech Republic to host 2015 Under-21 finals". UEFA.com. 20 March 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  4. ^ "Strategic points lead Dubrovnik talks". UEFA.com. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  5. ^ "U21 final tournament expanding to 12 teams". UEFA.com. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  6. ^ "Euro 2020: Croatia, Poland and Portugal also withdraw". StadiumDB.com.com. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  7. ^ "Seedings set for 2017 U21 qualifying draw". UEFA.com. 30 January 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, 2015–17" (PDF). UEFA.com. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  9. ^ "UEFA European Under-21 Championship Poland 2017 Official programme" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  10. ^ "Final tournament draw". UEFA.com. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  11. ^ "Poland get holders and England in U21 EURO draw". UEFA.com. 1 December 2016.
  12. ^ "Under-21 finals draw seedings". UEFA.com. 21 November 2016.
  13. ^ "2015-17 UEFA European Under-21 Championship: Final draw procedure" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  14. ^ "Za nami konferencja One Year To Go! Finał imprezy w Krakowie!". Sport.interia.pl. 7 June 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  15. ^ UEFA European Under-21 2017 Championship programme (PDF). p. 25.
  16. ^ "Under-21 match schedule" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Euro U-21 Livescore
  18. ^ "FIFA Executive Committee approves key priorities to restore trust in FIFA". UEFA. 2 May 2016.
  19. ^ "Weisers Kopfball macht den EM-Traum wahr" [Weiser's header makes the European Championship dream come true]. kicker.de (in German). kicker-sportmagazin. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  20. ^ "Statistics — Tournament phase — Player statistics — Goals". UEFA.com. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  21. ^ "Spain's Dani Ceballos named Player of the Tournament". UEFA.com. 30 June 2017.
  22. ^ "Saúl Ñíguez wins U21 EURO adidas Golden Boot". UEFA.com. 30 June 2017.
  23. ^ "The official Under-21 Team of the Tournament". UEFA.com. 1 July 2017.
  24. ^ UEFA. "Cinkciarz becomes UEFA EURO U21 Championship 2017 global sponsor". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  25. ^ "Hisense signs as UEFA EURO 2016 global sponsor". UEFA.org. UEFA. 14 January 2016. Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
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