2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Campionato europeo di calcio Under-21 2019
Tournament details
Host countries Italy
San Marino
Dates 16–30 June 2019[1]
Teams 12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 6 (in 6 host cities)

The 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2019) will be the 22nd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (25th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. The final tournament will be hosted by Italy (and some matches by San Marino) in mid-2019, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 9 December 2016 in Nyon, Switzerland.[2][3]

A total of 12 teams will play in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1996 eligible to participate.[4]

Same as previous Under-21 Championships that were held one year prior to the Olympics, this tournament will serve as European qualifying for the Olympic football tournament, with the top four teams of the tournament qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympic men's football tournament in Japan, where they will be represented by their under-23 national teams with maximum of three overage players allowed.[5]

Germany are the defending champions.

Hosts

The Italian Football Federation confirmed that Italy would bid to host the tournament in 2019,[6] which also involved the San Marino Football Federation. Hosts Italy and San Marino were announced at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Nyon on 9 December 2016.[2]

Qualification

All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Italy qualifying automatically (the other co-hosts San Marino will not qualify automatically), the other 54 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament.[7] The qualifying competition, which will take place from March 2017 to November 2018, consists of two rounds:[4]

  • Qualifying group stage: The 54 teams are drawn into nine groups of six 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

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

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

Team Method of qualification Date of qualification Appearance Last appearance Previous best performance
 ItalyHosts9 December 201620th2017 (semi-finals)Champions (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)
 SpainGroup 2 winners6 September 201814th2017 (runners-up)Champions (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013)
 FranceGroup 9 winners7 September 20189th2006 (semi-finals)Champions (1988)
 EnglandGroup 4 winners11 October 201815th2017 (semi-finals)Champions (1982, 1984)
 SerbiaGroup 7 winners12 October 201811th
(incl. 4 as Yugoslavia
& 2 as Serbia and Montenegro)		2017 (group stage)Champions (1978) (as Yugoslavia)
Runners-up (2004) (as Serbia and Montenegro)
Runners-up (2007) (as Serbia)
 GermanyGroup 5 winners12 October 201812th2017 (champions)Champions (2009, 2017)
TBDGroup 1 winners
TBDGroup 3 winners
TBDGroup 6 winners
TBDGroup 8 winners
TBDPlay-off winners
TBDPlay-off winners

Final draw

The final draw will be held on 23 November 2018, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), in Bologna.[8] The 12 teams are drawn into three groups of four teams. Hosts Italy are assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams are seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:[9]

Venues

On 9 December 2016, Italian Football Federation pre-selected venues (included one inside San Marino territory):[10]

Bologna Reggio nell'Emilia Cesena
Stadio Renato Dall'Ara Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore Stadio Dino Manuzzi
Capacity: 38 279 Capacity: 23 717 Capacity: 23 860
Trieste Udine Serravalle (San Marino)
Stadio Nereo Rocco Dacia Arena San Marino Stadium
Capacity: 28 565 Capacity: 25 144 Capacity: 6 664

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.[4]

Group stage

The group winners and the best runner-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Tiebreakers

In the group stage, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 18.01 and 18.02):[4]

  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 have 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 have the same number of points, or if their rankings are 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. Position in the UEFA under-21 national team coefficient ranking for the final draw.

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

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Italy (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics
2 A2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics if best runner-up
3 A3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 A4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 16 June 2019. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host.
Italy  v A2
A3 v A4
Italy  v A3
A2 v A4
A4 v  Italy
A2 v A3

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 B1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics
2 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics if best runner-up
3 B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 17 June 2019. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
B1 v B2
B3 v B4
B1 v B3
B2 v B4
B4 v B1
B2 v B3

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 C1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics
2 C2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics if best runner-up
3 C3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 C4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 18 June 2019. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
C1 v C2
C3 v C4
C1 v C3
C2 v C4
C4 v C1
C2 v C3

Ranking of second-placed teams

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 A Group A second place 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage and 2020 Summer Olympics
2 B Group B second place 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Possible Olympic play-off[lower-alpha 1]
3 C Group C second place 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 16 June 2019. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient (Regulations Article 18.03).[4]
Notes:
  1. ↑ In case any of the teams which advance to the semi-finals are not an IOC member (England, Northern Ireland) and thus ineligible for the Olympics, an Olympic play-off may be played to decide one of the Olympic spots.

The match-ups of the semi-finals depend on which runner-up qualifies (Regulations Article 17.02):[4]

  Scenario according to the best runner-up
Best runner-up fromBest runner-up playsOther semi-final
Group AWinner Group BWinner Group A vs Winner Group C
Group BWinner Group AWinner Group B vs Winner Group C
Group CWinner Group AWinner Group B vs Winner Group C

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.[4]

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
27 June –
 
 
Winner Group A
 
30 June – Bologna
 
Runner-up Group B/C or
Winner Group C
 
Winner Semi-final 1
 
27 June –
 
Winner Semi-final 2
 
Winner Group B
 
 
Runner-up Group A or
Winner Group C
 

Semi-finals

Winner Group A Semi-final 1 Runner-up Group B/C or
Winner Group C
Winner Group B Semi-final 2 Runner-up Group A or
Winner Group C

Final

Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2

Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following four teams from UEFA qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympic men's football tournament.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1
TBDJune 2019
TBDJune 2019
TBDJune 2019
TBDJune 2019
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

References

  1. ↑ "UEFA Europa League Final 2019 to be played on 29 May". UEFA. 4 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Italy to host 2019 Under-21 EURO". uefa.com. 9 December 2016.
  3. ↑ "LA UEFA ASSEGNA ALL'ITALIA E SAN MARINO L'EUROPEO UNDER 21 DEL 2019". San Marino Football Federation. 9 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "2017-19 UEFA European Under-21 Championship regulations" (PDF). UEFA.
  5. ↑ "OC for FIFA Competitions approves procedures for the Final Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup". FIFA.com. 14 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "ITALY WILL SUBMIT APPLICATION TO HOST U21 2019 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP TO UEFA". FIGC.it. 10 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "Seedings set for live 2019 U21 qualifying draw". UEFA.com. 25 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Final tournament draw". UEFA.com.
  9. ↑ "Under-21 coefficients: 2019 qualifying draw" (PDF). UEFA.com.
  10. ↑ "La UEFA assegna all'Italia l'Europeo Under 21 del 2019". Italian Football Federation. 9 December 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.