| Tourney Name: | UEFA European Under-21 Championship |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Other Titles: | 2021-es U21-es labdarúgó-Európa-bajnokság Evropsko prvenstvo v nogometu do 21 let 2021 |
| Country: | Hungary |
| Country2: | Slovenia |
| Dates: | 24–31 March 2021 (group stage) 31 May – 6 June 2021 (knockout stage) |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 8 |
| Cities: | 8 |
| Count: | 3 |
| Matches: | 31 |
| Goals: | 83 |
| Top Scorer: | Lukas Nmecha (4 goals) |
| Player: | Fábio Vieira[1] |
| Prevseason: | 2019 |
| Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. Initially, 12 teams were to play in the tournament, however on 6 February 2019, UEFA's executive committee increased this number to 16.[2] Only players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate.[3]
The tournament was co-hosted by Hungary and Slovenia. It was originally scheduled to take place from 9 to 26 June 2021.[4] However, the tournament was rescheduled following the postponement of UEFA Euro 2020 to June/July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] The new dates were to be decided initially on 27 May 2020,[6] but then postponed to 17 June 2020,[7] where the UEFA Executive Committee meeting discussed the calendar and format of the tournament.[8] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced the tournament would be played in two stages; the group stage, which took place from 24 to 31 March 2021, and the knockout stage, which took place from 31 May to 6 June 2021.[9] [10] [11] Due to COVID-19 Pandemic the VAR system wasn't used.
Spain were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the knockout phase by Portugal.
The following associations indicated their interests to bid for the tournament:
Hungary and Slovenia were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 3 December 2018.[4] [14]
See main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification.
All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition, and, unlike the last competition, co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia qualified automatically, and the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 14 spots in the final tournament. The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 11 December 2018.[15] The qualifying group stage took place from March 2019 to October 2020, while the play-offs were set to take place in November 2020.[3] The qualifying competition would originally consist of two rounds:[3]
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe which caused the postponement of matches in the qualifying group stage, UEFA announced on 17 June 2020 that the play-offs would be cancelled. Instead, the nine group winners and the five best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualified for the final tournament.[9] [10] [11]
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).
| Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5th | 1996 (quarter-finals) | (1986) | ||||
| 1st | — | Debut | ||||
| 4th | 2013 (group stage) | (1980, 1990) | ||||
| 4th | 2011 (runners-up) | (2011) | ||||
| 8th | 2013 (semi-finals) | (2006, 2007) | ||||
| 9th | 2019 (group stage) | (1992, 2015) | ||||
| 15th | 2019 (champions) | (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019) | ||||
| 16th | 2019 (group stage) | (1982, 1984) | ||||
| 10th | 2019 (semi-finals) | (1988) | ||||
| 21st | 2019 (group stage) | (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004) | ||||
| 9th | 2017 (group stage) | (1994, 2015) | ||||
| 8th | 2017 (group stage) | (2002) | ||||
| 13th | 2019 (runners-up) | (2009, 2017) | ||||
| 4th | 2019 (group stage) | (2000, 2004, 2019) | ||||
| 3rd | 2019 (semi-finals) | (2019) | ||||
| 2nd | 2011 (group stage) | (2011) |
The final draw was held on 10 December 2020, 15:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[16] The sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:[3]
The hosts Hungary and Slovenia were assigned to position A1 and B1 respectively in the draw, while the other fourteen teams were drawn to the other available positions in their group.[17]
| width=170 | Team ! | |
|---|---|---|
| 40,620 | ||
| 38,490 | ||
| 37,147 | ||
| 36,846 |
| width=170 | Team ! | |
|---|---|---|
| 36,361 | ||
| 36,088 | ||
| 35,863 | ||
| 32,686 |
| width=170 | Team ! | |
|---|---|---|
| 32,198 | ||
| 31,902 | ||
| 29,648 | ||
| 29,162 |
| width=170 | Team ! | |
|---|---|---|
| 28,059 | ||
| 26,071 | ||
| (position B1) | 25,851 | |
| (position A1) | 21,318 |
The following were the venues where the competition was played:[18]
| Székesfehérvár | Szombathely | Budapest | Győr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOL Aréna Sóstó | Haladás Sportkomplexum | Bozsik Aréna | Ménfői úti Stadion | |
| Capacity: 14,000 | Capacity: 8,900 | Capacity: 8,468 | Capacity: 4,335 | |
| Locations of stadiums in Hungary | Locations of stadiums in Slovenia | |||
| Ljubljana | Celje | Maribor | Koper | |
| Stožice Stadium | Stadion Z'dežele | Bonifika Stadium | ||
| Capacity: 16,100[19] | Capacity: 13,600[20] | Capacity: 12,702[21] | Capacity: 4,010[22] | |
| Country | Referee | 1st assistant referee | 2nd assistant referee | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thibaud Nijssen | Ruben Wyns | |||
| Davor Beljo | Senad Ibrišimbegović | |||
| Íñigo Prieto López de Cerain | José Enrique Naranjo Pérez | |||
| Alberto Tegoni | Daniele Bindoni | |||
| Stéphane De Almeida | Bekim Zogaj | |||
| Mustafa Emre Eyisoy | Abdullah Bora Özkara | |||
| Cyril Mugnier | Mehdi Rahmouni | |||
| Levan Varamishvili | Zaza Pipia | |||
| Eduard Beitinger | Dominik Schaal | |||
| Joost van Zuilen | Johan Balder | |||
| Jakub Winkler | Dawid Golis | |||
| Mahbod Beigi | Andreas Söderkvist |
Fourth officials
See main article: 2021 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.[3]
The group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.
All times are local, CET (UTC+1) for matches between 24 and 27 March 2021, CEST (UTC+2) for matches between 28 and 31 March 2021.
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In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winners if necessary.[3]
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See main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
After the tournament the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.[27]
| Position | Player |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Andrei Vlad |
| Marco Carnesecchi | |
| Diogo Costa | |
| Defenders | David Raum |
| Diogo Queirós | |
| Nico Schlotterbeck | |
| Mads Bech Sørensen | |
| Perr Schuurs | |
| Victor Nelsson | |
| Ridle Baku | |
| Jorge Cuenca | |
| Midfielders | Fábio Vieira |
| Dani de Wit | |
| Gonzalo Villar | |
| Vitinha | |
| Niklas Dorsch | |
| Denis Makarov | |
| Arne Maier | |
| Forwards | Luka Ivanušec |
| Lukas Nmecha | |
| Jacob Bruun Larsen | |
| Dany Mota | |
| Javi Puado |
| Country/region | Broadcaster | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Pay | ||
| HRT | |||
| MTV | |||
| Sky Sports (YouTube, non-England games only)[28] | Sky Sports (England games only)[29] | ||
| RAI | |||
| ProSiebenSat.1[30] | |||
| NOS (Netherlands games only and Final)[31] | |||
| Match TV | |||
| RTP[32] | |||
| TVR[33] | |||
| RTV Slovenia | |||
| Mediaset España | |||
| SVT[34] | |||
| SRG SSR | |||
| TRT | |||
| Country/Region | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Super Sports | |
| Sony Six | |
| Wowow | |
| Latin America | ESPN |
| Middle East | beIN Sports |
| North Africa | beIN Sports |
| ESPN, TUDN | |
Hungary
Slovenia