2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification
Year:	2017
Num Teams:	52
Confederations:	1
Matches:	254
Goals:	713
Prevseason:	2015
Nextseason:	2019

The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition that determined the 11 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Poland in the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final.^[1]

A total of 52 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition, with Gibraltar as the only absentee.^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1994 are eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[3]

• Qualifying group stage: The 52 teams are drawn into nine groups – seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. Each group is played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners qualify directly for the tournament final, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The four teams are drawn into two ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last two qualified teams.

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 a group, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 14.01):^[3]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference 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. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;
5. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 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 6 to 10 apply;
6. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
7. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
8. Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
10. Position in the UEFA Under-21 national team coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

To determine the four best runners-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in sixth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 14.02):^[3]

1. Higher number of points;
2. Superior goal difference;
3. Higher number of goals scored;
4. Higher number of away goals scored;
5. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
6. Position in the UEFA Under-21 national team coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

In the play-offs, the team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualifies for the tournament final. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e., the team that scores more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, extra time is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e., if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.02).^[3]

Schedule

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA International Match Calendar.^[1]

Stage	FIFA International Dates
Qualifying group stage	23–31 March 2015
	8–16 June 2015
	31 August – 8 September 2015
	5–13 October 2015
	9–17 November 2015
	21–29 March 2016
	29 August – 6 September 2016
	3–11 October 2016
Play-offs	7–15 November 2016

Qualifying group stage

Draw

The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 5 February 2015, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^{[4] [5]}

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking calculation based on the following:^[6]

• 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final and qualifying competition
• 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final and qualifying competition
• 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition

Groups 1–7 each contained one team from each of Pots A–F, and Group 8–9 each contained one team from each of Pots A–E. Precautions: certain national teams were not drawn up in the same group. Azerbaijan and Armenia continued to dispute the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Russia's continued 2014-15 intervention in Ukraine.^[2]

+tournament final hosts
width=190	Team !
	25,402	24

+Teams entering qualifying group stage
+Pot A width=190 Team ! 41,470 1 36,252 2 36,129 3 35,370 4 35,107 5 34,516 6 33,887 7 33,422 8 31,989 9	+Pot B width=190 Team ! 31,346 10 31,296 11 30,365 12 29,837 13 29,766 14 28,950 15 27,982 16 27,668 17 27,539 18	+Pot C width=190 Team ! 27,497 19 27,252 20 27,177 21 26,982 22 25,812 23 25,286 25 24,859 26 24,441 27 24,402 28
+Pot D width=190 Team ! 23,851 29 23,818 30 23,776 31 23,521 32 22,912 33 22,606 34 22,431 35 21,936 36 20,638 37	+Pot E width=190 Team ! 20,317 38 18,809 39 18,126 40 17,511 41 17,414 42 17,076 43 16,014 44 15,836 45 15,726 46	+Pot F width=190 Team ! 14,896 47 14,651 48 11,251 49 10,838 50 10,163 51 8,950 52 8,125 53

Notes

• Teams marked in bold have qualified for the tournament final.

+Did not enter
width=190	Team !
	0	54

Groups

Group 1

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 1.

Group 2

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 2.

Group 3

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 3.

Group 4

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 4.

Group 5

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 5.

Group 6

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 6.

Group 7

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 7.

Group 8

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 8.

Group 9

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 9.

Ranking of second-placed teams

Play-offs

See main article: article and 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs.

Draw

The draw for the play-offs was held on 14 October 2016, 13:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^{[7] [8]}

Matches

The two play-off winners qualify for the tournament final.

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualify for the tournament final.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament^1 only U-21 era (since 1978)
			(1982, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994)
	Group 1 winners		(1978^2, 1980^2, 1988^2, 1990^2, 1992^2, 1994^2, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2015)
	Group 2 winners		(1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015)
	Group 3 winners		(debut)
	Group 4 winners		(1994, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2015)
	Group 5 winners		(1978, 1986, 1992, 2006, 2011, 2015)
	Group 6 winners		(1986, 1990, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2009, 2015)
	Group 7 winners		(1982^3, 1990^3, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2015)
	Group 8 winners		(1978^2, 1980^2, 1988^2, 1990^2, 1992^2, 1994^2, 2000)
	Group 9 winners		(1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015)
	Play-off winners		(1978^4, 1980^4, 1984^4, 1990^4, 2004^5, 2006^5, 2007, 2009, 2015)
	Play-off winners		(1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2009, 2011, 2013)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

² As Czechoslovakia

³ As West Germany

⁴ As Yugoslavia

⁵ As Serbia and Montenegro

Top goalscorers

Players with six goals or more.^[9]

10 goals

• Patrik Schick

9 goals

• Michael Gregoritsch
• Uroš Đurđević

8 goals

• Marcus Ingvartsen
• Gerard Deulofeu

7 goals

• Stipe Perica
• Davie Selke
• Munir

6 goals

• Aleš Čermák
• Nika Kacharava
• Vincent Janssen

Notes and References

1. Web site: Poland to host 2017 Under-21 EUROs. UEFA.com. 26 January 2015. 26 January 2015.
2. Web site: Seedings set for 2017 U21 qualifying draw. UEFA.com. 30 January 2015.
3. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, 2015–17. UEFA.com. PDF. 26 January 2015.
4. Web site: Qualifying group stage draw. UEFA.com. 5 February 2015.
5. Web site: 2017 Under-21 qualifying group stage draw. UEFA.com. 5 February 2015.
6. Web site: 2015-17 UEFA European Under-21 Group Stage Draw. UEFA.com. 30 January 2015.
7. Web site: Play-off draw. UEFA.com. 14 October 2016.
8. Web site: U21 play-offs: Serbia v Norway, Austria v Spain. UEFA.com. 14 October 2016.
9. Web site: Statistics — Qualifying phase — Player statistics — Goals. UEFA.com. 15 November 2016.