2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification

2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 8 October – 19 November 2019; Elite round:; Cancelled
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	78
Goals scored	306 (3.92 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Lorent Tolaj (8 goals)
	← 2019 2021; 2022 →

The 2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that was originally to determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Northern Ireland in the 2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament,^[2] before being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

Apart from Northern Ireland, 53 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.^[3] Players born on or after 1 January 2001 were eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition was planned to consist of two rounds:^[4]

Qualifying round: Apart from Portugal, which received a bye to the elite round as the team with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams were drawn into thirteen groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The thirteen group winners, the thirteen runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Before being cancelled, each group was planned to be played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners would have qualified for the final tournament.

The schedule of each group was planned as follows, with two rest days between each matchday (Regulations Article 20.04):^[4]

Group schedule
Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):^[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (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);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.02):^[4]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points (total 3 matches);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 6 December 2018, 10:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[5]

2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following pairs of teams could not be drawn in the same group: Spain and Gibraltar, Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Northern Ireland	4.000	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Portugal	25.222	1

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff.	Rank
France	24.000	2
England	23.833	3
Italy	19.611	4
Netherlands	19.000	5
Germany	17.722	6
Ukraine	16.389	7
Austria	16.056	8
Spain	15.833	9
Czech Republic	14.667	10
Greece	13.167	11
Turkey	12.278	12
Russia	12.278	13
Croatia	11.778	14

Pot B
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Slovakia	11.500	15
Sweden	11.278	16
Serbia	10.833	17
Belgium	10.833	18
Norway	10.444	19
Poland	10.167	20
Denmark	9.333	21
Republic of Ireland	9.167	22
Scotland	9.000	23
Georgia	9.000	24
Bulgaria	8.389	25
Bosnia and Herzegovina	8.167	26
Israel	7.667	27

Pot C
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Hungary	7.500	28
Finland	7.333	29
Switzerland	7.000	30
Romania	6.500	31
Montenegro	6.500	32
Slovenia	6.167	33
Cyprus	4.500	34
North Macedonia	4.333	35
Latvia	4.333	36
Azerbaijan	4.000	37
Wales	4.000	38
Belarus	3.667	39
Iceland	3.333	40

Pot D
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Lithuania	3.000	41
Kosovo	2.500	42
Estonia	2.333	43
Moldova	2.000	44
Luxembourg	2.000	45
Albania	2.000	46
Malta	2.000	47
Armenia	1.667	48
Andorra	1.667	49
Kazakhstan	1.333	50
Faroe Islands	1.333	51
Gibraltar	0.333	52
San Marino	0.000	53

Did not enter
Liechtenstein

Groups

The qualifying round was required to be completed by 19 November 2019.

Times up to 26 October 2019 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Turkey (H)	3	3	0	0	8	3	+5	9	Elite round
2	Bulgaria	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6	Elite round
3	Montenegro	3	0	1	2	5	8	−3	1
4	Armenia	3	0	1	2	4	10	−6	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

13 November 2019

11:00 (13:00 TRT)

Montenegro	1–3	Bulgaria
Vujanović 14'	Report	Tonev 4' Nikolov 83' (pen.) Krastev 90+3'

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 2, Manavgat

Referee: Balázs Berke (Hungary)

13 November 2019

14:00 (16:00 TRT)

Turkey	4–1	Armenia
Arslantaş 14' Tunç 16', 64' Yavuz Kol 69'	Report	Grigoryan 73'

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 1, Manavgat

Referee: Jérôme Brisard (France)

16 November 2019

11:00 (13:00 TRT)

Bulgaria	3–0	Armenia
Nikolov 5' (pen.) Todorov 54' Angelov 67'	Report

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 2, Manavgat

Referee: Krzysztof Jakubik (Poland)

16 November 2019

14:00 (16:00 TRT)

Turkey	2–1	Montenegro
Arslantaş 11' Yavuz Kol 53'	Report	Todorović 6' (pen.)

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 1, Manavgat

Referee: Jérôme Brisard (France)

19 November 2019

13:00 (15:00 TRT)

Bulgaria	1–2	Turkey
Krastev 2'	Report	Gündüz 10' (pen.) Karani Ünal 28'

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 1, Manavgat

Referee: Krzysztof Jakubik (Poland)

19 November 2019

13:00 (15:00 TRT)

Armenia	3–3	Montenegro
Shaghoyan 49' (pen.), 51' Tarakchyan 88'	Report	Vukčević 9', 23' Vukotić 85'

Arslan Zeki Demirci Sports Complex 2, Manavgat

Referee: Balázs Berke (Hungary)

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	3	3	0	0	7	0	+7	9	Elite round
2	Serbia (H)	3	1	1	1	9	5	+4	4	Elite round
3	Lithuania	3	1	0	2	1	10	−9	3
4	Romania	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

8 October 2019