2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship
U-19-Fußball-Europameisterschaft 2016
Tournament details
Host country	Germany
Dates	11–24 July 2016
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	10 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	France (8th title)
Runners-up	Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	55 (3.44 per match)
Attendance	162,972 (10,186 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jean-Kévin Augustin; (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Jean-Kévin Augustin[1]

The 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (65th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the men's under-19 national teams of UEFA member associations. Germany, which were selected by UEFA on 20 March 2012, hosted the tournament between 11 and 24 July 2016.[2]

A total of eight teams competed in the final tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1997 eligible to participate.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top five teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the UEFA representatives. This was decreased from the previous six teams, as FIFA decided to give one of the slots originally reserved for UEFA to the Oceania Football Confederation starting from 2017.[3]

Qualification

The national teams from all 54 UEFA member associations entered the competition. With Germany automatically qualified as hosts, the other 53 teams contested a qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament.[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: the qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2015, and the elite round, which took place in spring 2016.[5]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament:[6]

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

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Germany	Hosts	8th	2015	Champions (2008, 2014)
England	Elite round Group 1 winners	8th	2012	Runners-up (2005, 2009)
Italy	Elite round Group 2 winners	5th	2010	Champions (2003)
Austria	Elite round Group 3 winners	7th	2015	Semi-finals (2003, 2006, 2014)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 4 winners	4th	2015	Group stage (2010, 2013, 2015)
Croatia	Elite round Group 5 winners	3rd	2012	Semi-finals (2010)
Portugal	Elite round Group 6 winners	8th	2014	Runners-up (2003, 2014)
France	Elite round Group 7 winners	9th	2015	Champions (2005, 2010)

Final draw

The final draw was held on 12 April 2016, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany.[7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Germany were assigned to position A1 in the draw.[8]

Venues

The tournament was hosted in ten venues:[9]

Aalen	Aspach	Heidenheim	Mannheim	Reutlingen
Städtisches Waldstadion Capacity: 14,500	Mechatronik Arena Capacity: 10,000	Voith-Arena Capacity: 15,000	Carl-Benz-Stadion Capacity: 27,000	Stadion an der Kreuzeiche Capacity: 15,228

Sandhausen	Sinsheim	Stuttgart		Ulm
Hardtwaldstadion Capacity: 15,300	Rhein-Neckar-Arena Capacity: 30,150	Mercedes-Benz Arena Capacity: 60,449	Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau Capacity: 11,490	Donaustadion Capacity: 19,500

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.[5]

Match officials

A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.[10]

Referees

Aliyar Aghayev (Azerbaijan)
Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain)
Radu Petrescu (Romania)
Roi Reinshreiber (Israel)
Bart Vertenten (Belgium)
Anatoliy Zhabchenko (Ukraine)

Assistant referees

Ridiger Çokaj (Albania)
Igor Demeshko (Russia)
Milutin Đukić (Montenegro)
Vladimir Gerasimovs (Lithuania)
Geir Oskar Isaksen (Norway)
Douglas Ross (Scotland)
Birkir Sigurðarson (Iceland)
Manuel Vidali (Slovenia)

Fourth officials

Nikola Dabanović (Montenegro)
Alan Mario Sant (Malta)

Group stage

Results of teams participating in 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 18 April 2016.[11]

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. The third-placed teams entered the FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). 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:[5]

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, CEST (UTC+2).[12]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5	Knockout stage and 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2	Italy	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5	Knockout stage and 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup
3	Germany (H)	3	1	0	2	6	5	+1	3	FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off
4	Austria	3	0	2	1	2	5	−3	2

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

11 July 2016

12:00

Germany	0–1	Italy
	Report	Dimarco 78' (pen.)

Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart

Attendance: 54,689[13]

Referee: Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain)

11 July 2016