2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
2016 UEFA U-17 Avropa Çempionatı
Tournament details
Host country	Azerbaijan
Dates	5–21 May 2016
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Portugal (6th title)
Runners-up	Spain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	73 (2.35 per match)
Attendance	61,606 (1,987 per match)
Top scorer(s)	José Gomes (7 goals)
Best player(s)	José Gomes
	← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (34th edition if the Under-16 era is included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the men's under-17 national teams of UEFA member associations. Azerbaijan, which were selected by UEFA on 20 March 2012, hosted the tournament between 5 and 21 May 2016.^[2]

A total of 16 teams competed in the final tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1999 eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Portugal were crowned champions for the second time in the under-17 era, and sixth time overall, after beating Spain in the final 5–4 through a penalty shootout.^[3] France were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the group stage.^[4]

Qualification

The national teams from all 54 UEFA member associations entered the competition. With Azerbaijan automatically qualified as hosts, the other 53 teams contested a qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament.^[5] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: the qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2015, and the elite round, which took place in spring 2016.^[6]

Qualified teams

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

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

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Azerbaijan	Hosts	1st	—	Debut
Denmark	Elite round Group 1 winners	4th	2011	Semi-finals (2011)
Scotland	Elite round Group 1 runners-up^{[^]}	4th	2015	Semi-finals (2014)
Ukraine	Elite round Group 2 winners	5th	2013	Group stage (2002, 2004, 2007, 2013)
England	Elite round Group 2 runners-up^{[^]}	11th	2015	Champions (2010, 2014)
Italy	Elite round Group 3 winners	6th	2015	Runners-up (2013)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Elite round Group 3 runners-up^{[^]}	1st	—	Debut
Germany	Elite round Group 4 winners	9th	2015	Champions (2009)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 4 runners-up^{[^]}	10th	2015	Champions (2011, 2012)
Portugal	Elite round Group 5 winners	6th	2014	Champions (2003)
Sweden	Elite round Group 5 runners-up^{[^]}	2nd	2013	Semi-finals (2013)
France	Elite round Group 6 winners	10th	2015	Champions (2004, 2015)
Austria	Elite round Group 6 runners-up^{[^]}	5th	2015	Third place (2003)
Serbia	Elite round Group 7 winners	5th	2011	Quarter-finals (2002)
Belgium	Elite round Group 8 winners	5th	2015	Semi-finals (2007, 2015)
Spain	Elite round Group 8 runners-up^{[^]}	10th	2015	Champions (2007, 2008)

Notes

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

Final draw

The final draw was held on 8 April 2016, 12:00 AZT (UTC+4), at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan.^[8] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Hosts Azerbaijan were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams were seeded according to their results in the qualification elite round, with the seven best elite round group winners (counting all elite round results) placed in Pot 1 and drawn to positions 1 and 2 in the groups, and the remaining eight teams placed in Pot 2 and drawn to positions 3 and 4 in the groups.^[9]

Pot 1: Portugal, Serbia, Ukraine, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France
Pot 2: Belgium (eighth best group winner), England, Austria, Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Scotland, Spain

Venues

The tournament was hosted in four venues, all in Baku:^[10]

Baku		Baku
Baku Olympic Stadium	Azersun Arena	Bakcell Arena	Dalga Arena
Capacity: 68,000	Capacity: 4,735	Capacity: 10,500	Capacity: 6,700

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.^[6]

Match officials

A total of 8 referees, 12 assistant referees and 4 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.^[11]

Referees

Petr Ardeleánu
Svein-Erik Edvartsen
Bartosz Frankowski
Gunnar Jarl Jónsson
Fran Jović
Peter Kráľovič
Ville Nevalainen
Mitja Žganec

Assistant referees

Balázs Buzás
Andrew Christiansen
Lazaros Dimitriadis
Marios Dimitriadis
Emmett Dynan
Vasile Ermișchin
Alain Heiniger
Neeme Neemlaid
Edward Spiteri
Ceyhun Sesigüzel
Georgi Todorov
Levan Varamishvili

Fourth officials

Aliyar Aghayev
Alain Durieux
Orkhan Mammadov
Sergejus Slyva

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 12 April 2016.^[12]

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). 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:^[6]

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, AZT (UTC+4).^[13]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	2	1	0	7	0	+7	7	Knockout stage
2	Belgium	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2	5	Knockout stage
3	Azerbaijan (H)	3	1	1	1	2	6	−4	4
4	Scotland	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

5 May 2016

19:00

Belgium	2–0	Scotland
Corryn 45' Openda 60'	Report

Bakcell Arena, Baku

Attendance: 150^[14]

Referee: Peter Kráľovič (Slovakia)

5 May 2016