2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
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2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates
Qualifying round: 3 October – 14 November 2017 Elite round: 21–27 March 2018
Teams
54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played
120
Goals scored
425 (3.54 per match)
Top scorer(s)
Erling Haaland (9 goals)
← 2017
2019 →
International football competition
The 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Finland in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.[1]
Apart from Finland, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time).[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to participate.
The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:[3]
Qualifying round: Apart from Spain and Portugal, which receive byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners and the 13 runners-up advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams are drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualify for the final tournament.
The schedule of each mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 19.04):[3]
Matchday
Matches
Matchday 1
1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)
—
Matchday 2
1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)
—
Matchday 3
2 v 1, 4 v 3
Tiebreakers[]
In the qualifying round and elite round, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):[3]
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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are 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 have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (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);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
Qualifying round[]
Draw[]
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 13 December 2016, 10:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[4][5]
The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[6]
2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
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)
Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.[2]
Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.
Groups[]
The qualifying round must be played by 19 November 2017, and on the following FIFA International Match Calendar dates unless all four teams agree to play on another date:[3][6]
28 August – 5 September 2017
2–10 October 2017
6–14 November 2017
Times up to 28 October 2017 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).
The draw for the elite round was held on 6 December 2017, 11:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[7][8]
The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round.[9]Spain and Portugal, which received byes to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Teams from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group.[10]