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International football competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2023) was the 24th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (27th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. A total of 16 teams played in the final tournament, and only players born on or after 1 January 2000 were eligible to participate.[2]
Campionatul European de Fotbal Sub-21 2023 (in Romanian) 21-წლამდე ნაკრებთა ევროპის ჩემპიონატი (in Georgian) | |
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Tournament details | |
Host countries | Romania Georgia |
Dates | 21 June – 8 July |
Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
Venue(s) | 8 (in 5 host cities) |
Final positions | |
Champions | ![]() |
Runners-up | ![]() |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 31 |
Goals scored | 72 (2.32 per match) |
Attendance | 319,082 (10,293 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | ![]() ![]() ![]() (3 goals each) |
Best player(s) | ![]() |
The tournament was co-hosted by Romania and Georgia.[3] Romania hosted the opening match, while Georgia hosted the final. Romania already hosted the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
As with previous Under-21 Championships held one year prior to the Olympic Games, this tournament served as European qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Besides France, which qualified automatically as Olympic hosts, eligible teams competed for qualifying (3 berths) for the men's football tournament of the 2024 Summer Olympics, where they will be represented by their under-23 national teams with a maximum of three overage players allowed.
Germany were the defending champion, but they were not able to defend their title after being eliminated in the group stage.
England won their third title by defeating Spain 1–0 in the final. They became the first team to win the UEFA European Under-21 Championship without conceding a single goal in the entire tournament.[4]
Both Romania and Georgia bid for the tournament separately.[9] The two countries were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 3 December 2020.[3][10][11]
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).
Team | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Co-hosts | 3 December 2020 | 4th | 2021 | Semi-finals (2019) |
![]() | 1st | Debut | |||
![]() | Group I winners | 29 March 2022 | 4th | 2019 | Semi-finals (2007) |
![]() | Group C winners | 2 May 2022[a] | 16th | 2021 | Champions (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019) |
![]() | Group B winners | 3 June 2022 | 14th | 2021 | Champions (2009, 2017, 2021) |
![]() | Group D winners | 6 June 2022 | 10th | 2021 | Runners-up (1994, 2015, 2021) |
![]() | Group G winners | 7 June 2022 | 17th | 2021 | Champions (1982, 1984) |
![]() | Group E winners | 8 June 2022 | 9th | 2021 | Champions (2006, 2007) |
![]() | Group H winners | 9 June 2022 | 11th | 2021 | Champions (1988) |
![]() | Group F winners | 14 June 2022 | 22nd | 2021 | Champions (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004) |
![]() | Group A winners | 14 June 2022 | 3rd | 2013 | Semi-finals (1998, 2013) |
![]() | Group E runners-up[b] | 14 June 2022 | 5th | 2021 | Runners-up (2011) |
![]() | Play-offs winner | 27 September 2022 | 3rd | 2011 | Runners-up (2006) |
![]() | Play-offs winner | 27 September 2022 | 9th (15th incl. Czechoslovakia) | 2021 | Champions (2002) |
![]() | Play-offs winner | 27 September 2022 | 5th | 2021 | Quarter-finals (2021) |
![]() | Play-offs winner | 27 September 2022 | 3rd | 2013 | Group stage (2007, 2013) |
The final draw was held on 18 October 2022, 18:00 CET in Bucharest.[13] The sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:[2]
The hosts Romania and Georgia were assigned to positions A1 and B1, respectively, while the remaining fourteen teams were drawn to the other available positions in their group.[14]
Team | Coeff[14] |
---|---|
![]() | 36,626 |
![]() | 35,798 |
![]() | 35,244 |
![]() | 32,414 |
Team | Coeff[14] |
---|---|
![]() | 31,945 |
![]() | 31,744 |
![]() | 31,550 |
![]() | 30,455 |
The Federația Română de Fotbal originally proposed the following eight venues in Romania:[15]
However, four stadiums were removed from the list of venues since Georgia was also appointed as host.[16]
Bucharest | Venues in Romania | Bucharest |
---|---|---|
Steaua Stadium | Location of venues used in the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (Romania) |
Rapid-Giulești Stadium |
Capacity: 31,254 | Capacity: 14,047 | |
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Cluj-Napoca | Cluj-Napoca | |
Cluj Arena | Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium | |
Capacity: 30,201 | Capacity: 22,198 | |
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In Georgia, the tournament was also played at four stadiums.[17] Initially these venues were proposed:
Based on recommendation of the UEFA organizing group experts, in January 2022 Fazisi Stadium was replaced by Ramaz Shengelia Stadium located in Kutaisi.[18]
Tbilisi | Venues in Georgia | Tbilisi |
---|---|---|
Boris Paichadze | Mikheil Meskhi | |
Capacity: 54,202 | Capacity: 27,223 | |
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Batumi | Kutaisi | |
Adjarabet Arena | Ramaz Shengelia Stadium | |
Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 14,700 | |
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Country | Referee | 1st assistant referee | 2nd assistant referee |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Aliyar Aghayev | Zeynal Zeynalov | Akif Ämirälı |
![]() | Duje Strukan | Bojan Zobenica | Alen Jakšić |
![]() | Willy Delajod | Erwan Christophe Finjean | Cyril Mugnier |
![]() | Espen Eskås | Jan Erik Engan | Isaak Bashevkin |
![]() | Horațiu Feşnic | Valentin Avram | Alexandru Cerei |
![]() | Rade Obrenović | Jure Praprotnik | Grega Kordež |
Country | Referee | 1st assistant referee | 2nd assistant referee |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Erik Lambrechts | Jo De Weirdt | Kevin Monteny |
![]() | Morten Krogh | Steffen Bramsen | Dennis Wollenberg Rasmussen |
![]() | Donatas Rumšas | Aleksandr Radiuš | Dovydas Sužiedėlis |
![]() | Allard Lindhout | Erwin E. J. Zeinstra | Rogier Honig |
![]() | João Pinheiro | Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus | Luciano António Gomes Maia |
![]() | Mohammed Al-Hakim | Fredrik Klyver | Robin Wilde |
Fourth officials
Group A–C
Group B–D
Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player.[2]
The group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the group stage, 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 18.01 and 18.02):[2]
All times are local, EEST (UTC+3) in Romania and GET (UTC+4) in Georgia.
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 5 | Advance to knockout stage |
2 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 4 | |
3 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
4 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 |
Belgium ![]() | 0–0 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
Report |
Georgia ![]() | 2–2 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
|
Report |
Portugal ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
Netherlands ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 | Advance to knockout stage |
2 | ![]() |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 | |
3 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 1 | |
4 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 1 |
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
2 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 4 | |
3 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 | |
4 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 |
Czech Republic ![]() | 0–2 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
Report |
|
England ![]() | 2–0 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
|
Report |
Israel ![]() | 1–0 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
|
Report |
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
2 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | −3 | 3[lower-alpha 1] | |
3 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3[lower-alpha 1] | |
4 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 3[lower-alpha 1] |
In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winners if necessary. As France qualified as hosts and England were ineligible for the 2024 Summer Olympics, their results were used to determine whether an Olympic play-off match would be required and who would participate.[2]
Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
1 July – Boris Paichadze Stadium | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 (3) | |||||||||
5 July – Adjarabet Arena | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 (4) | |||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
2 July – Ramaz Shengelia Stadium | ||||||||||
![]() | 3 | |||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
8 July – Adjarabet Arena | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
1 July – Stadionul Rapid-Giulești | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||||||
5 July – Stadionul Steaua | ||||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
![]() | 5 | |||||||||
2 July – Cluj Arena | ||||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
![]() | 3 | |||||||||
As England is not an IOC member and France did not reach the semi-finals, all other semi-finalists qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics regardless of results.
There were 72 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.32 goals per match.
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
After the tournament the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.[51]
Position | Player |
---|---|
Goalkeeper | ![]() |
Defenders | ![]() |
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Midfielders | ![]() |
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Forwards | ![]() |
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The following four teams from UEFA qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympic men's football tournament, including France, who qualified as the hosts.[citation needed]
Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1 |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Hosts | 13 September 2017 | 13 (1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1996, 2020) |
![]() | Semi-finalist | 2 July 2023 | 2 (1968, 1976) |
![]() | Runners-up | 2 July 2023 | 11 (1920, 1924, 1928, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2012, 2020) |
![]() | Semi-finalist | 2 July 2023 | 0 (debut) |