The 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-19 Euro 2018) was the 17th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (67th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Finland hosted the final tournament, between 16 and 29 July, after being selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015. A total of eight teams competed in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1999 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 of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the UEFA representatives, besides Poland who qualified automatically as hosts.
In the final, 2017 runners-up Portugal beat the 2016 losing finalists Italy 4–3, after extra-time, to win their first title in the under-19 era and their fourth overall. Having won the Under-17 title in 2016, this generation of players became the first to hold the European title in both youth categories. England were the defending champions, but were eliminated by France, finishing third in the group stage. They lost 0–3 to Norway in the play-off round and thus failed to qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, where they would also defend their title.
Qualification
All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time), and with the hosts Finland qualifying automatically, the other 54 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 2017, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2018.
Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).
Team Method of qualificationAppearance Last appearance Previous best performance 1st — 4th 2005 (group stage) (2002, 2003, 2005) 10th 2017 (champions) (2017) 6th 2016 (runners-up) (2003) 5th 2015 (group stage) (2009) 10th 2017 (runners-up) (2003, 2014, 2017) 10th 2016 (champions) (2005, 2010, 2016) 6th 2013 (group stage) (2004)
Final draw The final draw was held on 30 May 2018, 12:00 EEST (UTC+3), at the Vaasa City Hall in Vaasa, Finland. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Finland were assigned to position A1 in the draw.
Venues The tournament took place in Vaasa and Seinäjoki.
SeinäjokiVaasaOmaSP StadionHietalahti StadiumCapacity: 5,672Capacity: 5,572
Match officials A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.
Referees Manuel Schüttengruber Jonathan Lardot Bartosz Frankowski Andrew Dallas Juan Martínez Munuera Sandro Schärer
Assistant referees Damir Lazić Bojan Zobenica Daniel Norgaard Aron Härsing Bryngeir Valdimarsson Alexandru Cerei Joakim Nilsson Ian Bird
Fourth officials Ville Nevalainen Petri Viljanen
Squads
Each national team submitted a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 39).
Group stage The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 5 June 2018.
The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup. The third-placed teams entered the FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off.
Tiebreakers In the group stage, teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 16.01 and 16.02): 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 were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (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); 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 were local, EEST (UTC+3).
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.
Bracket
FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off Winner qualified for 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Semi-finals
Final
Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup The following six teams from UEFA qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, including Poland which qualified as hosts.
Team Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1 4 (1979, 1981, 1983, 2007) 6 (1977, 1981, 1987, 2005, 2009, 2017) 11 (1979, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) 3 (2001, 2005, 2015) 6 (1977, 1997, 2001, 2011, 2013, 2017) 2 (1989, 1993) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Goalscorers
Team of the Tournament The UEFA technical observers selected the following 11 players for the team of the tournament (and an additional nine substitutes):
Starting XI:
Goalkeeper Alessandro Plizzari
Defenders Raoul Bellanova Romain Correia Davide Bettella Rúben Vinagre
Midfielders Michaël Cuisance Florentino Luís Sandro Tonali
Wingers Jota Moussa Diaby
Forward Vladyslav Supriaha
Substitutes:
Goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf
Outfield Thierry Correia Trevoh Chalobah Domingos Quina Saku Ylätupa Nicolò Zaniolo Serhiy Buletsa Francisco Trincão Moise Kean
References
External links
UEFA Under-19 history: 2017/18 2017/18 final tournament: Finland, UEFA.com