U-21 European Football Championship 2015

U-21 European Football Championship 2015
UEFA Under 21 Championship
Number of nations	8  (of 53 applicants)
European champion	Sweden (1st title)
venue	Czech Republic
Opening game	17th June 2015
Endgame	June 30, 2015
Games	15th
Gates	37  (⌀: 2.47 per game)
spectator	162,994  (⌀: 10,866 per game)
Top scorer	Jan Kliment (3 goals)
Best player	William Carvalho
yellow cards	45  (⌀: 3 per game)
Yellow-red cards	2  (⌀: 0.13 per game)
Red cards	2  (⌀: 0.13 per game)

The final round of the U-21 European Football Championship 2015 took place for the first time from June 17 to 30, 2015 in the Czech Republic, whose team was automatically qualified for the round of the last eight teams. All other 52 teams had to qualify in the preliminary round. Players born on or after January 1, 1992 were allowed to participate.

The tournament also served as the European qualifier for the men's soccer tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro .

qualification

→ Main article : 2015 U-21 European Football Championship / qualification

The 52 teams played in two groups with six teams and eight groups with five teams in the first and second leg. The ten group winners and the four best runners-up qualified for the playoffs. The 14 qualified teams played the final round participants in seven round-trip fixtures. Then there was the Czech Republic, which did not have to play any qualifying matches as hosts.

The group matches were played from March 22, 2013 to September 9, 2014; the play-offs took place on October 8, 2014 and October 14, 2014.

mode

The eight teams were divided into two groups. The group winners and the runners-up reached the semi-finals, the winners of the semi-finals reached the final. In the event of a tie, the direct comparison decided .

The four participants in the semifinals also qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games. If the English team had been among them, a playoff would have been played between the two thirds in the group, as the English Football Association decided not to nominate an Olympic football team after protests by the other three Home Nations . Since this did not happen, such a game was not held.

Attendees

The following U-21 national teams had qualified for the tournament:

•  Denmark
•  Germany
•  England
•  Italy
•  Portugal
•  Sweden
•  Serbia
•  Czech Republic (host)

→ For the team squad, see the sub-article U-21 European Football Championship 2015 / Squad

Defending champion Spain failed to qualify.

Venues

Prague		Olomouc	Uherské Hradiště	Prague Olomouc Uherské Hradiště Venues
Eden Arena	Generali Arena	Andrův stadium	Miroslava Valenty Stadium
Capacity: 20,800	Capacity: 19,784	Capacity: 12,566	Capacity: 8,121

Preliminary round

Group A

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Denmark	3	2	0	1	004: 400	± 0	06th
2.	Germany	3	1	2	0	005: 200	+3	05
3.	Czech Republic	3	1	1	1	006: 300	+3	04th
4th	Serbia	3	0	1	2	001: 700	−6	01

Wed., June 17, 2015, 6:00 p.m. in Prague Eden Arena
Czech Republic	-	Denmark	1: 2 (1: 0)
Wed., June 17, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Prague Generali Arena
Germany	-	Serbia	1: 1 (1: 1)
Sat., June 20, 2015, 6:00 p.m. in Prague Generali Arena
Serbia	-	Czech Republic	0: 4 (0: 2)
Sat., June 20, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Prague Eden Arena
Germany	-	Denmark	3: 0 (1: 0)
Tue., June 23, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Prague Eden Arena
Czech Republic	-	Germany	1: 1 (0: 0)
Tue., June 23, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Prague Generali Arena
Denmark	-	Serbia	2: 0 (1: 0)

Group B

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Portugal	3	1	2	0	002: 100	+1	05
2.	Sweden	3	1	1	1	003: 300	± 0	04th
3.	Italy	3	1	1	1	004: 300	+1	04th
4th	England	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03

Thursday, June 18, 2015, 6:00 p.m. in Olomouc
Italy	-	Sweden	1: 2 (1: 0)
Thursday, June 18, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Uherské Hradiště
England	-	Portugal	0: 1 (0: 0)
Sun., June 21, 2015, 6:00 p.m. in Olomouc
Sweden	-	England	0: 1 (0: 0)
Sun., June 21, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Uherské Hradiště
Italy	-	Portugal	0-0
Wed., June 24, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Olomouc
England	-	Italy	1: 3 (0: 2)
Wed., June 24, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Uherské Hradiště
Portugal	-	Sweden	1: 1 (0: 0)

Final round

Semifinals

Sat., June 27, 2015, 6:00 p.m. in Olomouc
Portugal	-	Germany	5: 0 (3: 0)
Sat., June 27, 2015, 9:00 p.m. in Prague Generali Arena
Denmark	-	Sweden	1: 4 (0: 2)

final

Tue., June 30, 2015, 8:45 p.m. in Prague Eden Arena
Sweden	-	Portugal	0: 0 a.d., 4: 3 in E.

Best goal scorers

Listed below are the top scorers in the European Championship finals (without qualification); if the number is the same, they are sorted alphabetically.

rank	player	Gates
1	Jan Kliment	3
2	Marco Benassi	2
	John Guidetti	2
	João Mário	2
	Simon Tibbling	2
	Kevin Volland	2
7th	24 more players	1

The top scorer in the overall competition (including qualification) was Saido Berahino from England with a total of 10 goals.

Team of the tournament

The tournament technical observers published a list of the best players in the tournament the day after the final, which will make up the tournament team.

goalkeeper	Defense	midfield	striker
José Sá	Victor Lindelöf Filip Helander Jannik Vestergaard Raphaël Guerreiro	William Carvalho Oscar Lewicki Nathan Redmond Bernardo Silva Ivan Cavaleiro	Kevin Volland

referee

The games of the European Championship were led by six referees. These were each supported by two line judges and two gate judges. In addition, two fourth officials were nominated.

country	referee	Linesman	Gate judge
France	Clement Turpin	Frédéric Cano Nicolas Danos	Fredy Fautrel Nicolas Rainville
Greece	Anastasios Sidiropoulos	Damianos Efthymiadis Polychronis Kostaras	Michael Koukoulakis Stavros Tritsonis
Netherlands	Danny Makkelie	Mario Diks Hessel Steegstra	Kevin Blom Jochem Kamphuis
Russia	Sergei Karasev	Anton Averyanov Tikhon Kalugin	Sergei Lapotschkin Sergei Ivanov
Spain	Javier Estrada Fernández	Miguel Martínez Munuera Teodoro Sobrino Magán	Alejandro Hernández Hernández Jesús Gil Manzano
Poland	Szymon Marciniak *	Paweł Sokolnicki Tomasz Listkiewicz	Paweł Raczkowski Tomasz Musiał
Fourth official
Czech Republic		Jan Paták Ondřej Pelikán

* Directed both the opening game and the final.

Television broadcast

The television rights for the U-21 European Championship were held in Germany by ARD and ZDF , which broadcast all of the German team's games. Sport1 broadcast all other games. Some games were only broadcast in the live stream of the respective broadcasters. Ma Chaîne Sport has secured the rights for Switzerland, and the matches in Austria are broadcast on UEFA.tv.

Web links

• Details about the 2015 tournament on rsssf.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Czech Republic to host 2015 Under-21 finals. In: uefa.com. UEFA , March 20, 2012, accessed July 16, 2014 . 
2. ↑ Rio 2016: FA scraps plans for Great Britain football teams. In: bbc.com. British Broadcasting Corporation , March 30, 2015, accessed June 22, 2015 . 
3. ↑ U21 EURO: Official team of the tournament. In: uefa.com. UEFA, July 1, 2015, accessed July 1, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Match officials. In: uefa.com. UEFA, October 24, 2014, accessed June 17, 2015 . 
5. ↑ U21-EM broadcast schedule. In: zdfsport.de. ZDF , June 17, 2015, accessed on June 17, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Where to see the U21 European Championship: On air and online. In: uefa.com. UEFA, June 11, 2015, accessed June 17, 2015 .