2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
International football competition
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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]
Romania
| Campionatul European de Fotbal Sub-21 2023 (in Romanian) 21-წლამდე ნაკრებთა ევროპის ჩემპიონატი (in Georgian) | |
|---|---|
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| Tournament details | |
| Host countries | Georgia Romania |
| Dates | 21 June – 8 July |
| Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue | 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 | Anthony Gordon[1] |
← 2021 2025 → | |
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
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 | 1st (4th incl. Soviet Union) | 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 (6th incl. Soviet Union) | 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 (9th incl. Yugoslavia) | 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, 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.[12] 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 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.[13]
| Team | Coeff[13] |
|---|---|
| Netherlands | 36,626 |
| England | 35,798 |
| Italy | 35,244 |
| Romania (position B1) | 32,414 |
| Team | Coeff[13] |
|---|---|
| Croatia | 31,945 |
| Switzerland | 31,744 |
| Belgium | 31,550 |
| Czech Republic | 30,455 |
Venues
Romania
The Federația Română de Fotbal originally proposed the following eight venues in Romania:[14]
- 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.[15]
| 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 | |
 |
.jpg) | |
| 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.[16] Initially these venues were proposed:
- Adjarabet Arena, Batumi
- Fazisi Stadium, Poti
- Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, Tbilisi
- Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi
Based on recommendation of the UEFA organizing group experts, in January 2022 Fazisi Stadium was replaced by Ramaz Shengelia Stadium located in Kutaisi.[17]
| Tbilisi | Venues in Georgia | Tbilisi |
|---|---|---|
| Boris Paichadze | Mikheil Meskhi | |
| Capacity: 54,202 | Capacity: 27,223 | |
 |
 | |
| Batumi | Kutaisi | |
| Adjarabet Arena | Ramaz Shengelia Stadium | |
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 14,700 | |
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Match officials
| 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 |
| 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 | |
| 3 | Netherlands |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | Belgium |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0–0 | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Georgia | 2–2 | Belgium |
|---|---|---|
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Report |
| Portugal | 1–1 | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
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Report |
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| Netherlands | 1–1 | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
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Report |
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Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Ukraine |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 7 | |
| 3 | Croatia |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 1 | |
| 4 | Romania (H) |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | −4 | 1 |
Group C
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Israel |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 4 | |
| 3 | Czech Republic |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | Germany |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 |
| Czech Republic | 0–2 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
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| England | 2–0 | Israel |
|---|---|---|
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Report |
| Israel | 1–0 | Czech Republic |
|---|---|---|
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Report |
Group D
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 9 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Switzerland |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | −3 | 3[a] | |
| 3 | Italy |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3[a] | |
| 4 | Norway |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 3[a] |
- Tied on head-to-head points (3) and head-to-head goal difference (0). Head-to-head goals scored: Switzerland 4, Italy 3, Norway 2.
Knockout stage
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]
Bracket
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| 1 July – Boris Paichadze Stadium | ||||||||||
| Georgia | 0 (3) | |||||||||
| 5 July – Adjarabet Arena | ||||||||||
| Israel (p) | 0 (4) | |||||||||
| Israel | 0 | |||||||||
| 2 July – Ramaz Shengelia Stadium | ||||||||||
| England | 3 | |||||||||
| England | 1 | |||||||||
| 8 July – Adjarabet Arena | ||||||||||
| Portugal | 0 | |||||||||
| England | 1 | |||||||||
| 1 July – Stadionul Rapid-Giulești | ||||||||||
| Spain | 0 | |||||||||
| Spain (a.e.t.) | 2 | |||||||||
| 5 July – Stadionul Steaua | ||||||||||
| Switzerland | 1 | |||||||||
| Spain | 5 | |||||||||
| 2 July – Cluj Arena | ||||||||||
| Ukraine | 1 | |||||||||
| France | 1 | |||||||||
| Ukraine | 3 | |||||||||
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
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.[46]
Final
Goalscorers
There were 72 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.32 goals per match.
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Maxim De Cuyper- Largie Ramazani
- Yorbe Vertessen
Václav Sejk- Martin Vitík
Harvey Elliott- Morgan Gibbs-White
- Curtis Jones
- Cole Palmer
- Jacob Ramsey
Maxence Caqueret- Amine Gouiri
- Arnaud Kalimuendo
- Michael Olise
- Zuriko Davitashvili
- Giorgi Gagua
- Giorgi Guliashvili
- Saba Sazonov
- Heorhiy Tsitaishvili
Yann Aurel Bisseck- Angelo Stiller
Omri Gandelman- Dor Turgeman
Wilfried Gnonto- Fabiano Parisi
- Pietro Pellegri
- Lorenzo Pirola
Brian Brobbey- Kenneth Taylor
Erik Botheim- Emil Konradsen Ceide
André Almeida- Tiago Dantas
- João Neves
Álex Baena- Antonio Blanco
- Aimar Oroz
- Oihan Sancet
Oleksiy Kashchuk- Danylo Sikan
- Bohdan Vyunnyk
1 own goal
- Victor Dican (against Ukraine)
- Ivan Zhelizko (against Spain)
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
- Player of the Tournament: Anthony Gordon[1]
- Top Scorer: Sergio Gómez / Abel Ruiz / Heorhiy Sudakov[50] (3 goals each)
Team of the tournament
After the tournament the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.[51]
| Position | Player |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | James Trafford |
| Defenders | Juan Miranda |
| Levi Colwill | |
| Taylor Harwood-Bellis | |
| James Garner | |
| Midfielders | Rodri |
| Antonio Blanco | |
| Curtis Jones | |
| Sergio Gómez | |
| Forwards | Abel Ruiz |
| Anthony Gordon |
Qualified teams for the 2024 Summer Olympics
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | Hosts | 13 September 2017 | 13 (1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1996, 2020) |
| Israel | Semi-finalist | 2 July 2023 | 2 (1968, 1976) |
| Spain | Runners-up | 2 July 2023 | 11 (1920, 1924, 1928, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2012, 2020) |
| Ukraine | Semi-finalist | 2 July 2023 | 0 (debut) |
- 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.