2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship

2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship
	File:2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.png
Tournament details
Host country	Northern Ireland
Dates	8–20 August 2017
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	12
Goals scored	37 (3.08 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Annamaria Serturini; (3 goals);
	← 2016 2018 → All statistics correct as of 14 August 2017.

The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) will be 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, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, will host the tournament.^[1]

A total of eight teams will play 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 will qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France as the UEFA representatives, besides France who qualified automatically as hosts.^[2]

Qualification

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Northern Ireland qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament.^[3] The qualifying competition consists of two rounds: Qualifying round, which takes place in autumn 2016, and Elite round, which takes place in spring 2017.^[4]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.^[5]

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 best runners-up among all six elite round groups qualified for the final tournament.

Final draw

The final draw was held on 22 June 2017, 15:00 BST (UTC+1), at the Belfast City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.^[6]^[7] The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four teams. There will be no seeding, except that hosts Northern Ireland will be assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The tournament will be 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

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 18 players.^[4]

Match officials

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

Referees

Barbara Poxhofer (Austria)
Olga Tereshko (Belarus)
Justina Lavrenovaite (Lithuania)
Marte Sørø (Norway)
Silvia Domingos (Portugal)
Petra Chudá (Slovakia)

Assistant referees

Bérengère Pierart (Belgium)
Gabriela Hanáková (Czech Republic)
Nina Hammarberg (Finland)
Elena Soklevska-Ilievski (Macedonia)
Iuliia Petrova (Russia)
Vikki Robertson (Scotland)
Ivana Lesková (Slovakia)
Staša Špur (Slovenia)

Fourth officials

Rebecca Welch (England)
Cheryl Foster (Wales)

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 22 June 2017.^[8]

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):^[4]

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 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;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
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).
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);
Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, BST (UTC+1).^[9]

Group A

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	Knockout stage and 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
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

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
Notes:

^ Because France are among the semi-finalists, the two third-placed teams of the group stage enter the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off where the winner qualifies for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

8 August 2017