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The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1996–98), had 46 entrants. Before the quarter-finals stage, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four matches in total.
| Campionatul European de Fotbal sub 21 UEFA 1998 | |
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Host country |  Romania |
| Dates | 23–31 May |
| Teams | 8 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue(s) | 3 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Spain (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Greece |
| Third place |  Norway |
| Fourth place |  Netherlands |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 22 (1.83 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Steffen Iversen[1] Nikos Liberopoulos[1] (3 goals) |
| Best player(s) | Francesc Arnau |
← 1996 2000 → | |
The exclusion (for political reasons) of the team from Serbia and Montenegro, then known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended. Bosnia and Herzegovina was another former state of Yugoslavia who competed, for the first time. Spain won the competition for the second time.
The 46 national teams were divided into nine groups (eight groups of 5 + one group of 6). The records of the nine group winners were compared, and the eighth and ninth ranked teams played-off against each other for the eight quarter finals spot. One of the eight quarter-finalist were then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.
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The qualifying stage for the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship saw Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain and Sweden win their respective groups. Greece and England finished first in their group but were the two worst first placed group winners. Greece defeated England in a playoff to qualify for the tournament.
Qualified teams
| Country | Qualified as | Previous appearances in tournament1 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Norway | Group 3 Winner | 0 (Debut) |
 Sweden | Group 4 Winner | 3 (1986, 1990, 1992) |
 Russia | Group 5 Winner | 1 (1994) |
| Spain | Group 6 Winner | 7 (1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996) |
| Netherlands | Group 7 Winner | 2 (1988, 1992) |
| Romania | Group 8 Winner | 0 (Debut) |
 Germany | Group 9 Winner | 2 (1992, 1996) |
| Greece | Playoff Winner | 1 (1988, 1994) |
- 1 Bold indicates champion for that year
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The final tournament was held in Bucharest, the hosts being only three arenas.
|
Location of grounds in Bucharest. |
Bucharest (Vatra Luminoasă) | Bucharest (Ghencea) |
|---|---|---|
| Stadionul Lia Manoliu | Stadionul Steaua | |
| Capacity: 60,120 | Capacity: 28,365 | |
 |
 | |
| Bucharest (Cotroceni) | ||
| Stadionul Cotroceni | ||
| Capacity: 14,542 | ||
 |
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| Country | Referee |
|---|---|
 FR Yugoslavia | Miroslav Radoman |
 Luxembourg | Alain Hamer |
 Senegal | Falla N'Doye |
 Slovakia | Ľuboš Micheľ |
 Turkey | Metin Tokat |
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Only players born on or after 1 January 1975 were eligible to play in the tournament. Each nation had to submit a squad of 20 players, two of which had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured seriously enough to prevent his taking part in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.
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Bracket
| 5th-place match (30 May) | 5th–8th place (26–27 May) | Quarter-finals (23–24 May) | Semi-finals (26–27 May) | Final (31 May) | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
| Romania | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Romania | 0 | Netherlands | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Germany (aet) | 1 | Greece | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| Germany | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Greece | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Germany | 2 | Greece | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Sweden | 1 | Spain | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Norway | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
| Sweden | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| 7th-place match (30 May) | Sweden | 2 | Norway | 0 | 3rd-place match (31 May) | |||||||||||||
| Russia | 0 | Spain (aet) | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Romania | 1 | Spain | 1 | Netherlands | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Russia | 2 | Russia | 0 | Norway | 2 | |||||||||||||
Quarter-finals
| Germany | 0–1 | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Karagounis  57' |
| Spain | 1–0 | Russia |
|---|---|---|
| Iván Pérez 84' |
Report |
Referee: Alain Hamer (Luxembourg)
5th-8th places
Semi-finals
Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)
| Netherlands | 0–3 | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Liberopoulos 21', 90' Antzas 57' |
7th place
5th place
Third place
| Netherlands | 0–2 | Norway |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Iversen 17', 74' |
Final
| Greece | 0–1 | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Iván Pérez 65' |
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