| Tourney Name: | UEFA European Under-21 Championship |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Other Titles: | Mistrzostwa Europy U-21 w Piłce Nożnej 2017 |
| Size: | 230px |
| Dates: | 16–30 June |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 6 |
| Cities: | 6 |
| Count: | 2 |
| Matches: | 21 |
| Goals: | 65 |
| Player: |  Dani Ceballos |
| Prevseason: | 2015 |
| Nextseason: | 2019 |
The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2017) was the 21st edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, a biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. The final tournament was hosted in Poland for the first time, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 26 January 2015 in Nyon, Switzerland.[1] The tournament took place from 16–30 June 2017.[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1994 were eligible for the tournament.
In March 2012, UEFA announced that the competition would take place in even numbered years from 2016 onwards.[3] In September 2013, UEFA announced its intention to continue holding the final tournament in odd numbered years following a request from its member national football associations.[4] On 24 January 2014, UEFA confirmed that the final tournament would be held in 2017 and that it would be expanded from 8 teams to 12.[5]
The hosts were announced at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Nyon on 26 January 2015. In late April 2014, the Polish Football Association very strongly indicated the country has high chances to host the tournament. Bidding to welcome Europe's best youth teams was one of the reasons for Poland's withdrawal from the UEFA Euro 2020 race.[6]
See main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification.
A total of 53 UEFA nations entered the competition (Gibraltar did not enter, as per usual), and with the hosts Poland qualifying automatically, the other 52 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament.[7] The qualifying competition, which took place from March 2015 to November 2016, consisted of two rounds:[8]
The following 12 teams qualified for the final tournament.[9]
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).
| Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Finals appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosts | (1982, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994) | |||||
| Group 4 winners | (1994, 2015) | |||||
| Group 5 winners | (1992, 2015) | |||||
| Group 9 winners | (1982, 1984) | |||||
| Group 8 winners | (2000) | |||||
| Group 7 winners | (2009) | |||||
| Group 1 winners | (2002) | |||||
| Group 6 winners | (2015) | |||||
| Group 2 winners | (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004) | |||||
| Group 3 winners | — | |||||
| Play-off winners | (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013) | |||||
| Play-off winners | (2004, 2007) |
The final draw was held on 1 December 2016, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), at the ICE Congress Centre in Kraków.[10] [11] The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying play-offs, with the hosts Poland assigned to position A1 in the draw. Each group contained either the hosts or one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2, and two teams from Pot 3.[12] [13]
|
|
|
|
On 7 June 2016, Polish Football Association selected six venues:[14]
The capacities listed below were the tournament capacity and does not necessarily reflect the maximum capacity of the stadiums.[15]
| Opening match and Group A | Group A | Group B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lublin | Kielce | Gdynia | |
| Arena Lublin | Kolporter Arena | Stadion GOSiR | |
| Capacity: 15,247 | Capacity: 14,733 | Capacity: 14,769 | |
| Group B | Group C, semifinal, and Final | Group C and semifinal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bydgoszcz | Kraków | Tychy | |
| Kompleks Sportowy Zawisza | Stadion Cracovia | Stadion Miejski | |
| Capacity: 11,585 | Capacity: 14,715 | Capacity: 14,805 | |
In February 2017, UEFA selected nine referees and their teams for this tournament.
| Country | Referee | 1st assistant referee | 2nd assistant referee | Additional assistant referee | Additional assistant referee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andreas Heidenreich | Maximilian Kolbitsch | Alexander Harkam | Julian Weinberger | |||
| Ángel Nevado Rodríguez | Diego Berbero Sevilla | Carlos del Cerro Grande | Juan Martínez Munuera | |||
| Hicham Zakrani | Frédéric Haquette | Jérôme Miguelgorry | ||||
| Benjamin Brand | ||||||
| Vytautas Šimkus | Vytenis Kazlauskas | Donatas Rumšas | Robertas Valikonis | |||
| Bas van Dongen | Joost van Zuilen | Dennis Higler | Jeroen Manschot | |||
| David McGeachie | Alastair Mather | Andrew Dallas | Donald Robertson | |||
| Tomáš Somoláni | Branislav Hancko | Peter Kráľovič | Filip Glova | |||
| Tomaž Klančnik | Andraž Kovačič | Rade Obrenović | Roberto Ponis |
| Country | 4th official | |
|---|---|---|
| Marcin Borkowski | ||
| Igor Demeshko | ||
| Roy Hassan | ||
| Michał Obukowicz |
See main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads.
Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player.[8]
The group winners and the best runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.
All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).[16]
--------
--------
--------
The match-ups of the semi-finals depended on which runner-up qualified (Regulations Article 17.02):[8]
| Best runner-up from | Best runner-up plays | Other semi-final | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group A | Winner Group B | Winner Group A vs Winner Group C | |
| Group B | Winner Group A | Winner Group B vs Winner Group C | |
| Group C | Winner Group A | Winner Group B vs Winner Group C |
In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.[8]
On 2 May 2016, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board's trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time.[17]
----
See main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final.
There were 65 goals scored in 21 matches, for an average of goals per match.
Tomáš Chorý Marek Havlík Michael Lüftner Patrik Schick Michal Trávník
Domenico Berardi Lorenzo Pellegrini Andrea Petagna
Nikola Gjorgjev Kire Markoski
Dawid Kownacki Patryk Lipski Łukasz Moneta
Uroš Đurđević Mijat Gaćinović
Jaroslav Mihalík Pavol Šafranko Ľubomír Šatka Martin Valjent Gerard Deulofeu Sandro Iñaki Williams Denis Suárez
Jacob Une Larsson Carlos StrandbergThe following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Dani Ceballos[18] Saúl[19]After the tournament, the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.[20]
| Position | Player |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Julian Pollersbeck |
| Defenders | Jeremy Toljan |
| Milan Škriniar | |
| Niklas Stark | |
| Yannick Gerhardt | |
| Midfielders | Maximilian Arnold |
| Dani Ceballos | |
| Max Meyer | |
| Saúl | |
| Forwards | Marco Asensio |
| Federico Bernardeschi |