2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Campionatul European de Fotbal Sub-21; (in Romanian); 21-წლამდე ნაკრებთა ევროპის ჩემპიონატი (in Georgian)
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	England (3rd title)
Runners-up	Spain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	72 (2.32 per match)
Attendance	319,082 (10,293 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sergio Gómez; Abel Ruiz; Heorhiy Sudakov; (3 goals each)
Best player(s)	Anthony Gordon[1]

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]

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]

Host selection

Both Romania and Georgia bid for the tournament separately.[5] The two countries were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 3 December 2020.[3][6][7]

Qualification

Qualified teams

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
Romania	Co-hosts	3 December 2020	4th	2021	Semi-finals (2019)
Georgia	Co-hosts	3 December 2020	1st	Debut
Belgium	Group I winners	29 March 2022	4th	2019	Semi-finals (2007)
Spain	Group C winners	2 May 2022^[a]	16th	2021	Champions (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019)
Germany	Group B winners	3 June 2022	14th	2021	Champions (2009, 2017, 2021)
Portugal	Group D winners	6 June 2022	10th	2021	Runners-up (1994, 2015, 2021)
England	Group G winners	7 June 2022	17th	2021	Champions (1982, 1984)
Netherlands	Group E winners	8 June 2022	9th	2021	Champions (2006, 2007)
France	Group H winners	9 June 2022	11th	2021	Champions (1988)
Italy	Group F winners	14 June 2022	22nd	2021	Champions (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Norway	Group A winners	14 June 2022	3rd	2013	Semi-finals (1998, 2013)
Switzerland	Group E runners-up^[b]	14 June 2022	5th	2021	Runners-up (2011)
Ukraine	Play-offs winner	27 September 2022	3rd	2011	Runners-up (2006)
Czech Republic	Play-offs winner	27 September 2022	9th (15th incl. Czechoslovakia)	2021	Champions (2002)
Croatia	Play-offs winner	27 September 2022	5th	2021	Quarter-finals (2021)
Israel	Play-offs winner	27 September 2022	3rd	2013	Group stage (2007, 2013)

Notes

^
On 2 May 2022, UEFA announced that Russia were removed from European Under-21 Championship qualification due to their country's invasion of Ukraine, with all their earlier results considered null and void.[8] Spain therefore qualified for the European Under-21 Championship, as no other teams could surpass them.
^
The best runner-up among all nine groups qualified for the final tournament.

Final draw

The final draw was held on 18 October 2022, 18:00 CET in Bucharest.[9] 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]

2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (40%)
2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition (group stage only) (40%)

The hosts Georgia and Romania were assigned to positions A1 and B1, respectively, while the remaining fourteen teams were drawn to the other available positions in their group.[10]

Pot 1
Team	Coeff[10]
Spain	41,837
Portugal	40,130
Germany	39,668
France	37,887

Pot 2
Team	Coeff[10]
Netherlands	36,626
England	35,798
Italy	35,244
Romania (position B1)	32,414

Pot 3
Team	Coeff[10]
Croatia	31,945
Switzerland	31,744
Belgium	31,550
Czech Republic	30,455

Pot 4
Team	Coeff[10]
Ukraine	29,362
Norway	27,872
Israel	25,732
Georgia (position A1)	24,442

Venues

Romania

The Federația Română de Fotbal originally proposed the following eight venues in Romania:[11]

Arena Națională, Bucharest
Steaua Stadium, Bucharest
Rapid-Giulești Stadium, Bucharest
Arcul de Triumf Stadium, Bucharest
Cluj Arena, Cluj-Napoca
Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium, Cluj-Napoca
Ilie Oană Stadium, Ploiești
Marin Anastasovici Stadium, Giurgiu

However, four stadiums were removed from the list of venues since Georgia was also appointed as host.[12]

Bucharest	Venues in Romania	Bucharest
Steaua Stadium	Bucharest Cluj-Napoca Location of venues used in the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (Romania)	Rapid-Giulești Stadium
Capacity: 31,254		Capacity: 14,047

Cluj-Napoca		Cluj-Napoca
Cluj Arena		Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium
Capacity: 30,201		Capacity: 22,198

Georgia

In Georgia, the tournament was also played at four stadiums.[13] 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.[14]

Tbilisi	Venues in Georgia	Tbilisi
Boris Paichadze	Tbilisi Batumi Kutaisi Location of venues used in the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (Georgia)	Mikheil Meskhi
Capacity: 54,202		Capacity: 27,223

Batumi		Kutaisi
Adjarabet Arena		Ramaz Shengelia Stadium
Capacity: 20,000		Capacity: 14,700

Match officials

Group A–C
Country	Referee	1st assistant referee	2nd assistant referee
Azerbaijan	Aliyar Aghayev	Zeynal Zeynalov	Akif Ämirälı
Croatia	Duje Strukan	Bojan Zobenica	Alen Jakšić
France	Willy Delajod	Erwan Christophe Finjean	Cyril Mugnier
Norway	Espen Eskås	Jan Erik Engan	Isaak Bashevkin
Romania	Horațiu Feşnic	Valentin Avram	Alexandru Cerei
Slovenia	Rade Obrenović	Jure Praprotnik	Grega Kordež

Group B–D
Country	Referee	1st assistant referee	2nd assistant referee
Belgium	Erik Lambrechts	Jo De Weirdt	Kevin Monteny
Denmark	Morten Krogh	Steffen Bramsen	Dennis Wollenberg Rasmussen
Lithuania	Donatas Rumšas	Aleksandr Radiuš	Dovydas Sužiedėlis
Netherlands	Allard Lindhout	Erwin E. J. Zeinstra	Rogier Honig
Portugal	João Pinheiro	Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus	Luciano António Gomes Maia
Sweden	Mohammed Al-Hakim	Fredrik Klyver	Robin Wilde

Fourth officials

Group A–C

Juxhin Xhaja
Goga Kikacheishvili

Group B–D

Andrei Chivulete
Sebastian Gishamer

Squads

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]

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

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]

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 were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 had 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 had the same number of points, or if their rankings were 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 ranking for the final draw.

All times are local, EEST (UTC+3) in Romania and GET (UTC+4) in Georgia.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Georgia (H)	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5	Advance to knockout stage
2	Portugal	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4	Advance to knockout stage
3	Netherlands	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	3
4	Belgium	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

21 June 2023

20:00

Georgia	2–0	Portugal
Gagua 37' Sazonov 45'	Report

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 24,447[15]

Referee: Espen Eskås (Norway)

21 June 2023