2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship


The 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 16th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Georgia, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament.
A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1998 eligible to participate.
In the final, which was played on 15 July, England defeated Portugal 2–1.

Qualification

All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Georgia qualifying automatically, the other 53 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 2016, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2017.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era.
TeamMethod of qualificationFinals appearanceLast appearancePrevious best performance
2013
2016
2016
2016
2016
2014
2011
–Debut

Final draw

The final draw was held in 13 April 2017, 14:00 GET, at the Ballroom of Hotels & Preference Hualing in Tbilisi, Georgia. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Georgia were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The final tournament matches were held in four stadium venues located in two cities:
StadiumLocationCapacity
Mikheil Meskhi StadiumTbilisi27,000
Mikheil Meskhi Stadium-2Tbilisi2,000
David Petriashvili StadiumTbilisi3,000
Tengiz Burjanadze StadiumGori5,000

Match officials

A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.
;Referees
;Assistant referees
;Fourth officials
Each national team have to submit a squad of 18 players.

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 24 April 2017.
The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals.
;Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
  2. Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
  4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
  5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
  7. If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out.
  8. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches ;
  9. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
  10. Drawing of lots.
All times are local, GET.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.
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. On 1 June 2017, it was also announced as part of a trial sanctioned by the IFAB to reduce the advantage of the team shooting first in a penalty shoot-out, a different sequence of taking penalties, known as "ABBA", that mirrors the serving sequence in a tennis tiebreak would be used if a penalty shoot-out was needed :
;Original sequence
;Trial sequence

Bracket

Semi-finals

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Final

Goalscorers

;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 own goal
;Goalkeepers
;Defenders
;Midfielders
;Forwards