2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
2015 УЕФА Европейско първенство за юноши до 17 години
Tournament details
Host country	Bulgaria
Dates	6–22 May
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	France (2nd title)
Runners-up	Germany
Tournament statistics
Matches played	33
Goals scored	59 (1.79 per match)
Attendance	77,868 (2,360 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Odsonne Édouard (8 goals)
Best player(s)	Odsonne Édouard
	← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (33rd edition if the Under-16 era was also included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Bulgaria hosted the tournament.^[3] The finals featured 16 teams for the first time since 2002, as the number of teams was increased from eight in the previous tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate in this competition.

The final tournament also acted as the UEFA qualifier for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, with six teams qualifying (the four semi-finalists and the two winners of play-off matches between the losing quarter-finalists).

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

Qualification

All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition and with the hosts Bulgaria qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament.^[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014 and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.^[5]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[6]^[7]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Bulgaria	Hosts	1st	Debut	Debut
France	Elite round Group 1 winners	9th	2012	Champions (2004)
Spain	Elite round Group 1 runners-up^{[^]}	9th	2010	Champions (2007, 2008)
Croatia	Elite round Group 2 winners	3rd	2013	Fourth place (2005)
Belgium	Elite round Group 3 winners	4th	2012	Semi-finals (2007)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 3 runners-up^{[^]}	9th	2014	Champions (2011, 2012)
Greece	Elite round Group 4 winners	2nd	2010	Group stage (2010)
Republic of Ireland	Elite round Group 4 runners-up^{[^]}	2nd	2008	Group stage (2008)
Austria	Elite round Group 5 winners	4th	2013	Third place (2003)
Russia	Elite round Group 5 runners-up^{[^]}	3rd	2013	Champions (2006, 2013)
England	Elite round Group 6 winners	10th	2014	Champions (2010, 2014)
Slovenia	Elite round Group 6 runners-up^{[^]}	2nd	2012	Group stage (2012)
Czech Republic	Elite round Group 7 winners	5th	2011	Runners-up (2006)
Scotland	Elite round Group 7 runners-up^{[^]}	3rd	2014	Semi-finals (2014)
Germany	Elite round Group 8 winners	8th	2014	Champions (2009)
Italy	Elite round Group 8 runners-up^{[^]}	5th	2013	Runners-up (2013)

Notes

^
The best seven runners-up among all eight elite round groups qualified for the final tournament.

Final draw

The final draw was held in Pomorie, Bulgaria on 2 April 2015, 14:00 EEST (UTC+3).^[8]^[9] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Bulgaria were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The competition was played at four venues in four host cities: Beroe Stadium (in Stara Zagora), Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium (in Sliven), Lazur Stadium (in Burgas), and Arena Sozopol (in Sozopol).^[10]

Stara Zagora	Sliven	Burgas	Sozopol
Beroe Stadium	Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium	Lazur Stadium	Arena Sozopol
Capacity: 11,684	Capacity: 8,500	Capacity: 19,004	Capacity: 2,599

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.^[5]

Match officials

A total of 9 referees, 12 assistant referees and 4 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.^[11]

Referees

Marius Avram
Danilo Grujić
Adrien Jaccottet
Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen
Erik Lambrechts
Dumitru Muntean
Paweł Raczkowski
Roi Reinshreiber
Alan Mario Sant

Assistant referees

Erik Arevshatyan
Rejdi Avdo
Mehmet Culum
Namik Huseynov
Gareth Jones
Sten Klaasen
Ville Koskiniemi
Aleh Maslianka
Nuno Pereira
Romans Platonovs
Dovydas Sužiedėlis
Erik Weiss

Fourth officials

Georgi Kabakov
Tsvetan Krastev
Nikola Popov
Ivaylo Stoyanov

Group stage

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

Tiebreakers

if 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:^[5]

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, EEST (UTC+3).^[12]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Croatia	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Spain	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5	Knockout stage
3	Austria	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
4	Bulgaria (H)	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

6 May 2015

15:00

Spain	1–1	Austria
Aleñá 46' (pen.)	Report	Lovrić 62'

Lazur Stadium, Burgas

Attendance: 1,180^[13]

Referee: Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen (Denmark)

6 May 2015