2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	England
Dates	4–20 May 2018
Teams	16
Venue(s)	6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Netherlands (3rd title)
Runners-up	Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	73 (2.35 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Yorbe Vertessen; Edoardo Vergani; (4 goals each)

The 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as 2018 UEFA Under-17 Euro) was the 17th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (36th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-17 national teams of Europe. England, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament.[1]

A total of 16 teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2001 eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

The Netherlands won their third title by beating Italy 4–1 on penalties in the final after a 2–2 draw.[2] Spain were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Belgium in the quarter-finals.

Qualification

All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time), and with the hosts England qualifying automatically, the other 54 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament.[3] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2017, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2018.[4]

Qualified teams

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

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

Team	Method of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
England	Hosts	13th	2017 (runners-up)	Champions (2010, 2014)
Serbia	Elite round Group 1 winners	7th	2017 (group stage)	Quarter-finals (2002)
Spain	Elite round Group 1 runners-up	12th	2017 (champions)	Champions (2007, 2008, 2017)
Sweden	Elite round Group 2 winners	3rd	2016 (quarter-finals)	Semi-finals (2013)
Belgium	Elite round Group 2 runners-up^{[^]}	6th	2016 (quarter-finals)	Semi-finals (2007, 2015)
Republic of Ireland	Elite round Group 3 winners	4th	2017 (quarter-finals)	Quarter-finals (2017)
Switzerland	Elite round Group 4 winners	8th	2014 (group stage)	Champions (2002)
Portugal	Elite round Group 4 runners-up^{[^]}	7th	2016 (champions)	Champions (2003, 2016)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 5 winners	12th	2017 (quarter-finals)	Champions (2011, 2012)
Italy	Elite round Group 5 runners-up^{[^]}	8th	2017 (group stage)	Runners-up (2013)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Elite round Group 6 winners	3rd	2017 (group stage)	Group stage (2016, 2017)
Denmark	Elite round Group 6 runners-up^{[^]}	5th	2016 (group stage)	Semi-finals (2011)
Slovenia	Elite round Group 7 winners	3rd	2015 (group stage)	Group stage (2012, 2015)
Israel	Elite round Group 7 runners-up^{[^]}	3rd	2005 (group stage)	Group stage (2003, 2005)
Norway	Elite round Group 8 winners	2nd	2017 (group stage)	Group stage (2017)
Germany	Elite round Group 8 runners-up^{[^]}	11th	2017 (semi-finals)	Champions (2009)

Notes

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

Final draw

The final draw was held on 5 April 2018, 17:30 BST (UTC+1), at the St George's Park in Burton, England.[6] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Hosts England were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams were seeded according to their results in the qualification elite round, with the seven best elite round group winners (counting all elite round results) placed in Pot 1 and drawn to positions 1 and 2 in the groups, and the remaining eight teams (the eighth-best elite round group winner and the seven elite round group runners-up) placed in Pot 2 and drawn to positions 3 and 4 in the groups.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Seeding
1	—	England (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Host (A1)

2	3	Republic of Ireland	3	3	0	0	6	0	+6	9	Pot 1
3	5	Netherlands	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9
4	1	Serbia	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7
5	8	Norway	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7
6	7	Slovenia	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7
7	4	Switzerland	3	2	1	0	7	4	+3	7
8	6	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6
9	2	Sweden	3	1	2	0	1	0	+1	5	Pot 2

10	4	Portugal	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7	Pot 2
11	7	Israel	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6
12	6	Denmark	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6[lower-alpha 1]
13	5	Italy	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6[lower-alpha 1]
14	1	Spain	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5
15	8	Germany	3	1	1	1	5	3	+2	4
16	2	Belgium	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient; 6) drawing of lots.
(H) Host.
Notes:

Ranked by disciplinary points (Denmark: 4 pts; Italy: 6 pts).

Venues

The tournament took place at six venues across the Midlands and South Yorkshire. England's opening match took place at the Proact Stadium in Chesterfield with the final taking place at the New York Stadium in Rotherham.

Rotherham Chesterfield Walsall Burton Loughborough	Rotherham	Chesterfield	Walsall
	New York Stadium	Proact Stadium	Bescot Stadium
	Capacity: 12,023	Capacity: 10,504	Capacity: 11,300

	Burton		Loughborough
	Pirelli Stadium	St George's Park	Loughborough University Stadium
	Capacity: 6,912	Capacity: 1,500	Capacity: 3,300

Match officials

A total of 8 referees, 12 assistant referees and 4 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.[7]

Referees

Tihomir Pejin
Zbynek Proske
Juri Frischer
Robert Harvey
Vilhjálmur Alvar Thórarinsson
Dennis Higler
Horațiu Feșnic
Halil Umut Meler

Assistant referees

Robert Steinacher
Rza Mammadov
Georgi Doynov
Dan Petur Pauli Højgaard
Levan Todria
Chasan Koula
Péter Kóbor
Yuriy Tikhonyuk
Vytis Snarskis
Vladislav Lifciu
Douglas Potter
Volodymyr Vysotskyi

Fourth officials

Robert Hennessy
Keith Kennedy
Tim Marshall
Bryn Markham-Jones

Squads

Each national team submitted a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 40).[4]

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 10 April 2018.[8]

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

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 17.01 and 17.02):[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
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);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, BST (UTC+1).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	3	2	1	5	2	+3	6[lower-alpha 1]	Knockout stage
2	England (H)	3	2	1	4	3	+1	6[lower-alpha 1]	Knockout stage
3	Switzerland	3	2	1	4	2	+2	6[lower-alpha 1]
4	Israel	3	0	3	1	7	−6	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host.
Notes:

Head-to-head results: Italy 2–0 Switzerland, England 2–1 Italy, Switzerland 1–0 England. Head-to-head standings:
- Italy: 3 pts, +1 GD
- England: 3 pts, 0 GD
- Switzerland: 3 pts, −1 GD

4 May 2018