2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship

2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship

2017 Craobhchomórtas na mBan Faoi 19 de chuid UEFA
Tournament details
Host country	Northern Ireland
Dates	8–20 August
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (2nd title)
Runners-up	France
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	52 (3.25 per match)
Attendance	18,438 (1,152 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Patricia Guijarro (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Patricia Guijarro[1]
← 2016 2018 →

The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (20th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under-19 national teams of Europe. Northern Ireland was selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015 as the host country for the tournament.^[2]

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1998 eligible to participate.

Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acts as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France as the UEFA representatives, besides France who qualified automatically as hosts.^[3]

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Northern Ireland qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament.^[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2016, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2017.^[5]

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.^[6][7]

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

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Northern Ireland	Hosts	1st	—	Debut
Spain	Elite round Group 1 winners	12th	2016	Champions (2004)
England	Elite round Group 2 winners	12th	2015	Champions (2009)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 3 winners	7th	2016	Champions (2014)
France	Elite round Group 3 runners-up[^]	13th	2016	Champions (2003, 2010, 2013, 2016)
Scotland	Elite round Group 4 winners	5th	2014	Group stage (2005, 2008, 2010, 2014)
Italy	Elite round Group 5 winners	6th	2011	Champions (2008)
Germany	Elite round Group 6 winners	14th	2016	Champions (2002, 2006, 2007, 2011)

Notes

The final draw was held on 22 June 2017, 15:00 BST (UTC+1), at the Belfast City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.^[8][9] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Northern Ireland were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

The tournament was hosted in four venues:

Belfast	Belfast Lurgan Portadown Ballymena	Lurgan
Windsor Park		Mourneview Park
Capacity: 18,434		Capacity: 4,160
4 group matches, 2 semi-finals, final		3 group matches
Portadown		Ballymena
Shamrock Park		Ballymena Showgrounds
Capacity: 2,770		Capacity: 3,600
2 group matches		3 group matches, third-place playoff

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

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

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 22 June 2017.^[11]

The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). 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 (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02):^[5]

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 (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).
8. 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);
9. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
10. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, BST (UTC+1).^[12]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	3	3	0	0	11	0	+11	9	Knockout stage and 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
2	Spain	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6
3	Scotland	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1	FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off[a]
4	Northern Ireland	3	0	1	2	1	9	−8	1

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7	Knockout stage and 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
2	France	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6
3	England	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3	FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off[a]
4	Italy	3	0	1	2	5	11	−6	1

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In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.^[5]

On 2 May 2016, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board (IFAB)'s trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time.^[13] 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,^[14] 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 (team A kicks first, team B kicks second):^[15]

Original sequence

AB AB AB AB AB (sudden death starts) AB AB etc.

Trial sequence

AB BA AB BA AB (sudden death starts) BA AB etc.

	Semi-finals				Final
	17 August – Belfast
	Germany	1
					20 August – Belfast
	France	2
					France	2
	17 August – Belfast
					Spain	3
	Netherlands	2
	Spain	3
					World Cup play-off
					17 August – Lurgan
					Scotland	0
					England	2

Winner qualifies for 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

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Note: Goals scored in the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off are included in this list, but are not counted by UEFA for statistical purposes.

5 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: UEFA.com^[16]

Source: UEFA Technical Report^[17]

The following five teams from UEFA qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, including France which qualified as hosts.^[18]

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup1
France	19 March 2015[19]	6 (2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016)
Spain	14 August 2017	2 (2004, 2016)
Germany	11 August 2017	8 (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
Netherlands	11 August 2017	0 (debut)
England	17 August 2017	4 (2002, 2008, 2010, 2014)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

• Official website
• 2017 WU19 EURO final tournament: Northern Ireland, UEFA.com