2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship
Year:	2015
Other Titles:	2015 UEFA U17 ára meistaramót kvenna
Country:	Iceland
Dates:	22 June – 4 July
Num Teams:	8
Confederations:	1
Venues:	6
Cities:	4
Count:	3
Matches:	15
Goals:	45
Player:	Stefanie Sanders
Prevseason:	2014
Nextseason:	2016

The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship was the eighth edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual European youth football competition contested by the women's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Iceland hosted the tournament.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate in this competition.

Each match lasted 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes, with an interval of 15 minutes.

Qualification

See main article: article and 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification.

A total of 44 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Iceland qualifying automatically, the other 43 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 2014, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.^[2]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.^[3] ^[4]

Method of qualification	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Hosts	2011	(2011)
Elite round Group 1 winners	2012	(2012)
Elite round Group 2 winners	2014	(2008, 2014)
Elite round Group 2 runners-up	2010	(2010)
Elite round Group 3 winners	2014	(2008, 2009, 2012, 2014)
Elite round Group 4 winners	2014	(2010, 2011)
Elite round Group 5 winners	2009	(2009)
Elite round Group 6 winners	2014	(2008, 2011, 2012)

Notes

Final draw

The final draw was held in Reykjavík, Iceland on 29 April 2015, 11:30 WET (UTC±0).^[5] ^[6] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Iceland were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The competition was played at six venues in four host cities.^[7]

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.^[2]

Match officials

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

Referees

Barbara Bollenberg (Austria)
Ivana Martinčić (Croatia)
Vivian Peeters (Netherlands)
Graziella Pirriatore (Italy)
Ivana Projkovska (Macedonia)
Viola Raudziņa (Latvia)

Assistant referees

Liana Grigoryan (Armenia)
Aleksandra Kojović (Serbia)
Julia Magnusson (Sweden)
Slavomira Majkuthová (Slovakia)
Androniki Nioti (Greece)
Rúna Stefánsdóttir (Iceland)
Maryna Striletska (Ukraine)
Bjorn Valdimarsson (Iceland)

Fourth officials

Dimitrina Milkova (Bulgaria)
Lois Otte (Belgium)

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakersif 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:^[2]

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, WET (UTC±0).^[9]

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).^[2]

There was no third place match for this edition of the tournament as it was not used as a qualifier for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (since expansion to eight teams).