2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship

2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Israel
Dates	15–27 July 2015
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Sweden (3rd title)
Runners-up	Spain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	39 (2.6 per match)
Attendance	18,603 (1,240 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Stina Blackstenius (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Stina Blackstenius

The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (18th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the women's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Israel hosted the tournament.[1] Players born on or after 1 January 1996 were eligible to participate in this competition.

Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The four semi-finalists qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea as the UEFA representatives.[2]

Qualification

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Israel qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.[3]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.[4][5]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Israel	Hosts	1st	Debut	Debut
Spain	Elite round Group 1 winners	10th	2014	Champions (2004)
Sweden	Elite round Group 2 winners	9th	2014	Champions (2012)
France	Elite round Group 3 winners	11th	2013	Champions (2003, 2010, 2013)
England	Elite round Group 4 winners	11th	2014	Champions (2009)
Norway	Elite round Group 4 runners-up^{[^]}	10th	2014	Runners-up (2003, 2008, 2011)
Germany	Elite round Group 5 winners	12th	2013	Champions (2002, 2006, 2007, 2011)
Denmark	Elite round Group 6 winners	6th	2013	Semi-finals (2002, 2006, 2012)

Notes

^
The best runners-up among all six elite round groups qualified for the final tournament.

Final draw

The final draw was held in Haifa, Israel on 20 May 2015, 20:15 IDT (UTC+3).[6][7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Israel were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The matches were played at four venues in four host cities.[8]

Netanya	Netanya Rishon LeZion Lod Ramla	Rishon LeZion
Netanya Stadium		Haberfeld Stadium
Capacity: 13,610		Capacity: 6,000

Lod		Ramla
Lod Municipal Stadium		Ramla Municipal Stadium
Capacity: 3,000		Capacity: 2,000

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.[3]

Match officials

A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.[9]

Referees

Esther Azzopardi (Malta)
Lorraine Clark (Scotland)
Rhona Daly (Republic of Ireland)
Eleni Lampadariou (Greece)
Lina Lehtovaara (Finland)
Ana Minić (Serbia)

Assistant referees

Biljana Atanasovski Milanova (Macedonia)
Stephanie Forde (Belgium)
Fijke Hoogendijk (Netherlands)
Biljana Iskin (Austria)
Susanne Küng (Switzerland)
Mihaela Ţepuşă Gomoescu (Romania)
Katalin Török (Hungary)
Diana Vanaga (Latvia)

Fourth officials

Vesna Budimir (Croatia)
Tania Fernandes Morais (Luxembourg)

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

Tiebreakers

if two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[3]

Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (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).
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Drawing of lots.

All times were local, IDT (UTC+3).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	3	3	0	6	0	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
2	Sweden	3	2	1	4	1	+3	6	Advance to knockout stage 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
3	Denmark	3	1	2	2	3	−1	3
4	Israel (H)	3	0	3	1	9	−8	0

Source: UEFA
(H) Host.

15 July 2015

19:30

France	1–0	Denmark
Léger 49'	Report

Netanya Stadium, Netanya

Attendance: 400[9]

Referee: Ana Minić (Serbia)

15 July 2015