The 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (65th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the men's under-19 national teams of UEFA member associations. Germany, which were selected by UEFA on 20 March 2012, hosted the tournament between 11 and 24 July 2016.

A total of eight teams competed in the final tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1997 eligible to participate.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top five teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the UEFA representatives. This was decreased from the previous six teams, as FIFA decided to give one of the slots originally reserved for UEFA to the Oceania Football Confederation starting from 2017.

Qualification

The national teams from all 54 UEFA member associations entered the competition. With Germany automatically qualified as hosts, the other 53 teams contested a qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: the qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2015, and the elite round, which took place in spring 2016.

Qualified teams The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament:

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

Team Method of qualification Finals appearance Last appearance Previous best performance 2015 (2008, 2014) 2012 (2005, 2009) 2010 (2003) 2015 (2003, 2006, 2014) 2015 (2010, 2013, 2015) 2012 (2010) 2014 (2003, 2014) 2015 (2005, 2010)

Final draw The final draw was held on 12 April 2016, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Germany. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Germany were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues The tournament was hosted in ten venues:

Aalen Aspach Heidenheim Mannheim Reutlingen Städtisches WaldstadionCapacity: 14,500 Mechatronik ArenaCapacity: 10,000 Voith-ArenaCapacity: 15,000 Carl-Benz-StadionCapacity: 27,000 Stadion an der KreuzeicheCapacity: 15,228 Sandhausen Sinsheim Stuttgart Ulm HardtwaldstadionCapacity: 15,300 Rhein-Neckar-ArenaCapacity: 30,150 Mercedes-Benz ArenaCapacity: 60,449 Gazi-Stadion auf der WaldauCapacity: 11,490 DonaustadionCapacity: 19,500

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.

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

Referees Aliyar Aghayev (Azerbaijan) Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain) Radu Petrescu (Romania) Roi Reinshreiber (Israel) Bart Vertenten (Belgium) Anatoliy Zhabchenko (Ukraine)

Assistant referees Ridiger Çokaj (Albania) Igor Demeshko (Russia) Milutin Đukić (Montenegro) Vladimir Gerasimovs (Lithuania) Geir Oskar Isaksen (Norway) Douglas Ross (Scotland) Birkir Sigurðarson (Iceland) Manuel Vidali (Slovenia)

Fourth officials Nikola Dabanović (Montenegro) Alan Mario Sant (Malta)

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 18 April 2016.

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. The third-placed teams entered the FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off.

Tiebreakers The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question; Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question; If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied; Superior goal difference in all group matches; Higher number of goals scored in all group matches; If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (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). Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.

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

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.

On 2 May 2016, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board's trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time. In the FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off, Michel Vlap of the Netherlands became the first ever fourth substitute, replacing Laros Duarte at half-time in extra time, followed later by Emmanuel Iyoha of Germany replacing Jannes Horn in the 110th minute.

Bracket

FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off Winner qualified for 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Semi-finals

Final

Goalscorers 6 goals

Jean-Kévin Augustin

5 goals

Kylian Mbappé

4 goals

Philipp Ochs Federico Dimarco

3 goals

Sam Lammers

2 goals

Isaiah Brown Dominic Solanke Ludovic Blas Steven Bergwijn Abdelhak Nouri Aurélio Buta

1 goal

Arnel Jakupovic Xaver Schlager Josip Brekalo Nikola Moro Issa Diop Lucas Tousart Gökhan Gül Marvin Mehlem Phil Neumann Suat Serdar Cedric Teuchert Manuel Locatelli Dennis van der Heijden Asumah Abubakar Pedro Empis Pedro Pacheco Gonçalo Rodrigues Alexandre Silva

1 own goal

Silvio Anočić (playing against England) Clément Michelin (playing against England) Alberto Picchi (playing against England)

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers Alex Meret Pedro Silva

Defenders Fikayo Tomori Issa Diop Christ-Emmanuel Maouassa Phil Neumann Filippo Romagna Rúben Dias

Midfielders Xaver Schlager Amine Harit Lucas Tousart Abdelhak Nouri Pêpê

Forwards Jean-Kévin Augustin Ludovic Blas Kylian Mbappé Sam Lammers Buta

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup The following five teams from UEFA qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1 (1977, 1997, 2001, 2011, 2013) (1977, 1981, 1987, 2005, 2009) (1981, 1985, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2013) (1979, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015) (1981, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2015) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

References

External links

2016 final tournament: Germany, UEFA.com