1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Campionatul European de Fotbal sub 21 UEFA 1998
Tournament details
Host country  Romania
Dates 23 May – 31 May
Teams  (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 3 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions  Spain (2nd title)
Runners-up  Greece
Third place  Norway
Fourth place  Netherlands
Tournament statistics
Matches played 12
Goals scored 22 (1.83 per match)
Top scorer(s)

Norway Steffen Iversen (3 goals)[1]

Greece Nikos Liberopoulos (3 goals)
Best player Spain Francesc Arnau

The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1996–98), had 46 entrants. Before the quarter-finals stage, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four matches in total.

The exclusion (for political reasons) of the team from Serbia and Montenegro, then known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended. Bosnia and Herzegovina was another former state of Yugoslavia who competed, for the first time. Spain won the competition for the second time.

The 46 national teams were divided into nine groups (eight groups of 5 + one group of 6). The records of the nine group winners were compared, and the eighth and ninth ranked teams played-off against each other for the eight quarter finals spot. One of the eight quarter-finalist were then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.

Qualification

The qualifying stage for the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship saw Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain and Sweden win their respective groups. Greece and England finished first in their group but were the two worst first placed group winners. Greece defeated England in a playoff to qualify for the tournament.

List of qualified teams

The following 8 teams qualified for the tournament:

Participating teams

CountryQualified asPrevious appearances in tournament1 2
Norway NorwayGroup 3 Winner0 (Debut)
Sweden SwedenGroup 4 Winner3 (1986, 1990, 1992)
Russia RussiaGroup 5 Winner1 (1994)
Spain SpainGroup 6 Winner7 (1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996)
Netherlands NetherlandsGroup 7 Winner2 (1988, 1992)
Romania RomaniaGroup 8 Winner0 (Debut)
Germany GermanyGroup 9 Winner2 (1992, 1996)
Greece GreecePlayoff Winner1 (1988, 1994)
1 Bold indicates champion for that year

Squads

Only players born on or after 1 January 1975 were eligible to play in the tournament. Each nation had to submit a squad of 20 players, two of which had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured seriously enough to prevent his taking part in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.

Results

Bracket

  5th place match (30 May) 5th – 8th place (26–27 May) Quarterfinals (23–24 May) Semifinals (26–27 May) Final (31 May)
                                               
     Netherlands 2  
     Romania 1  
   Romania 0        Netherlands 0  
   Germany (aet) 1        Greece 3  
   Germany 0
     Greece 1  
   Germany 2        Greece 0
   Sweden 1        Spain 1
     Norway 1  
       Sweden 0  
 Sweden 2        Norway 0
  7th place match (30 May)      Russia 0        Spain (aet) 1     3rd place match (31 May)
   Romania 1    Spain 1    Netherlands 0
   Russia 2      Russia 0      Norway 2

References

  1. ↑ "1998: Iván Pérez applies finishing touch". UEFA.com. 1 June 1998. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
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