2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship

2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Switzerland
Dates	18–30 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (3rd title)
Runners-up	Germany
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	33 (2.2 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Dajan Hashemi; Paulina Krumbiegel; Lynn Wilms; Andrea Norheim; Olga Carmona; Alisha Lehmann; Géraldine Reuteler; (2 goals each)

The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2018) was the 17th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (21st edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under-19 national teams of Europe. Switzerland, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament,[1] which took place between 18 and 30 July 2018.[2]

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1999 eligible to participate.

Spain were the defending champions, and successfully defended the title after beating Germany in the final, and became the first nation to win the women's under-17 and under-19 titles in the same year.[3]

Qualification

A total of 49 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Kosovo who entered a competitive women's national team tournament for the first time), and with the hosts Switzerland qualifying automatically, the other 48 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament.[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2017, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2018.[5]

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.[6]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).

Team	Method of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Switzerland	Hosts	8th	2016 (semi-finals)	Semi-finals (2009, 2011)
Norway	Elite round Group 1 winners	12th	2016 (group stage)	Runners-up (2003, 2008, 2011)
Germany	Elite round Group 2 winners	15th	2017 (semi-finals)	Champions (2002, 2006, 2007, 2011)
France	Elite round Group 3 winners	14th	2017 (runners-up)	Champions (2003, 2010, 2013, 2016)
Spain	Elite round Group 4 winners	13th	2017 (champions)	Champions (2004, 2017)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 5 winners	8th	2017 (semi-finals)	Champions (2014)
Denmark	Elite round Group 6 winners	7th	2015 (group stage)	Semi-finals (2002, 2006, 2012)
Italy	Elite round Group 7 winners	7th	2017 (group stage)	Champions (2008)

Final draw

The final draw was held on 23 April 2018, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Stufenbau in Ittigen, Switzerland.[7] The eight teams (including the Elite round Group 1 winners whose identity was known at the time of the draw) were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Switzerland were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The eight teams were divided into two groups of four, a group West (Biel/Bienne, Yverdon-les-Bains) and a group East (Wohlen, Zug).[8]

Yverdon-les-Bains	Biel/Bienne	Wohlen	Zug
Stade Municipal	Tissot Arena	Stadion Niedermatten	Herti Allmend Stadion
Capacity: 5,165	Capacity: 5,200	Capacity: 3,616	Capacity: 4,707

Match officials

A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.[6]

Referees

Ivana Martinčić
Rebecca Welch
Eleni Antoniou
Tess Olofsson
Melis Özçiğdem
Cheryl Foster

Assistant referees

Khayala Azizzade
Hanna Ilyankova
Nikola Šafránková
Jenni Mahlamäki
May Moalem
Elena Soklevska Ilievski
Iana Eleferenko
Jasmina Zafirović

Fourth officials

Angelika Soeder
Sandra Strub

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 41).[5]

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 30 April 2018.[9]

The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

In the group stage, 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 17.01 and 17.02):[5]

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.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6[lower-alpha 1]	Knockout stage
2	Spain	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6[lower-alpha 1]	Knockout stage
3	Switzerland (H)	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4	France	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1

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

Head-to-head result: Spain 0–2 Norway.

18 July 2018