UEFA Futsal Euro 2018


The 2018 UEFA Futsal Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Futsal Euro 2018, was the 11th edition of the UEFA Futsal Championship, the international futsal championship organised by UEFA for the men's national teams of Europe. It was hosted for the first time in Slovenia, following a decision of the UEFA Executive Committee on 26 January 2015. Slovenia was chosen ahead of other bids from Macedonia and Romania.
The final tournament was contested from 30 January to 10 February and comprised 12 teams, eleven of which joined the hosts Slovenia after overcoming a qualifying tournament. Matches took place at the Arena Stožice in Ljubljana. In their second appearance in the competition's final after 2010, Portugal defeated seven-time winners and defending champions Spain 3–2, after extra-time, to win their first European title.
This was the last tournament to be held on a two-year basis and featuring 12 teams, as the competition will be played every four years, starting from 2022, and include 16 teams.

Qualification

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Slovenia qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition, which took place from January to September 2017, consisted of three rounds:
The following 12 teams qualified for the final tournament.
TeamMethod of qualificationAppearanceLast appearancePrevious best performance
6th2016
Main round Group 1 winners11th2016
Main round Group 2 winners5th2016
Main round Group 3 winners10th2016
Main round Group 4 winners9th2016
Main round Group 5 winners11th2016
Main round Group 6 winners2nd2016
Main round Group 7 winners11th2016
Play-off winners1st—
Play-off winners2nd2001
Play-off winners4th2014
Play-off winners6th2016

Final draw

The final draw was held on 29 September 2017, 12:00 CEST, at Ljubljana Castle in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The 12 teams were drawn into four groups of three teams. Hosts Slovenia were assigned to position A1 in the draw, and the remaining teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, except that title holders Spain were automatically placed into Pot 1.
Each group contained one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2, and one team from Pot 3. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine could not be drawn in the same group or in groups scheduled to be played on the same day. Therefore, if Russia were drawn in Group B, Ukraine had to be drawn in Group C or D, and if Russia were drawn in Group C or D, Ukraine had to be drawn in Group A or B.

Venues

All matches were played at the 10,500-capacity for futsal matches Arena Stožice in Ljubljana.
VenueArena Stožice
Capacity12,480
Image

Match officials

A total of 16 match officials were appointed for the final tournament.
  • Saša Tomić
  • Ondřej Černý
  • Marc Birkett
  • Timo Onatsu
  • Cédric Pelissier
  • Balázs Farkas
  • Gábor Kovács
  • Angelo Galante
  • Alessandro Malfer
  • Eduardo Fernandes Coelho
  • Bogdan Sorescu
  • Vladimir Kadykov
  • Admir Zahovič
  • Juan José Cordero Gallardo
  • Alejandro Martínez Flores
  • Kamil Çetin

    Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 14 players, two 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.

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 16 October 2017.
The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.
;Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  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 ;
  8. Disciplinary points ;
  9. Drawing of lots.
All times are local, CET.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

If a match is drawn after 40 minutes of regular play, an extra time consisting of two five-minute periods is played. If teams are still leveled after extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner. In the third place match, the extra time is skipped and the decision goes directly to kicks from the penalty mark.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place match

Final

Ranking and statistics

Final ranking

RankTeam
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

All-star squad

Top five players are bolded.
Player
GK Georgi Zamtaradze
GK Leo Higuita
FP Taynan da Silva
FP Douglas Júnior
FP André Coelho
FP Pedro Cary
FP Bruno Coelho
FP Ricardinho
FP Ivan Chishkala
FP Mladen Kocić
FP Igor Osredkar
FP Miguelín
FP Pola
FP Petro Shoturma

Awards

AwardPlayer
Best Player Ricardinho
Golden Shoe Ricardinho
Silver Shoe Bruno Coelho
Bronze Shoe Eder Lima

Goalscorers

;7 goals
  • Ricardinho
;6 goals
  • Bruno Coelho
;5 goals
  • Eder Lima
;4 goals
  • Douglas Jr.
  • Pedro Cary
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 own goal
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