The 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship was the ninth edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual European international youth football championship contested by the women's under-17 national teams of UEFA member associations. Belarus, which were selected by UEFA on 20 March 2012, hosted the tournament between 4 and 16 May 2016.

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1999 eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan as the UEFA representatives.

Qualification

The national teams from 47 UEFA member associations entered the competition, which was a record total, including Andorra who entered a UEFA women's competition for the first time. With Belarus automatically qualified as hosts, the other 46 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:

Team Method of qualification Finals appearance Last appearance Previous best performance — Debut 2015 (2008, 2009, 2012, 2014) 2015 (2010, 2011, 2015) — Debut 2014 (2014) 2015 (2009) 2015 (2008, 2014) — Debut

Notes

Final draw The final draw was held on 6 April 2016, 11:30 FET (UTC+3), at the Victoria Hotel in Minsk, Belarus. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Belarus were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues The tournament was hosted in five venues:

Barysaw Minsk Borisov Arena Haradski Stadium Traktor Stadium Capacity: 13,126 Capacity: 5,402 Capacity: 16,500 Slutsk Zhodzina City Stadium Torpedo Stadium Capacity: 1,896 Capacity: 6,524

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 Eleni Antoniou (Greece) Ana Aguiar (Portugal) Dimitrina Milkova (Bulgaria) Elvira Nurmustafina (Kazakhstan) Tess Olofsson (Sweden) Vera Opeikina (Russia)

Assistant referees Oleksandra Ardasheva (Ukraine) Emilie Aubry (Switzerland) Helena Buh (Slovenia) Yelena Jermolajeva (Latvia) Bianca H.P. Scheffers (Netherlands) Kinga Seniuk-Mikulska (Poland) Sibel Yamac Tamkafa (Turkey) Kristina Yanuskevich (Kazakhstan)

Fourth officials Volha Tsiareshka (Belarus) Irina Turovskaya (Belarus)

Group stage

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 7 April 2016.

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

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 have 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, FET (UTC+3).

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).

There was a third place match (i.e., FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off) for this edition of the tournament as it was used as a qualifier for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (since expansion to eight teams).

Bracket

Semi-finals Winners qualified for 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Third place match Winner qualified for 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Final

Goalscorers 5 goals

Alessia Russo Lorena Navarro

4 goals

Niamh Charles Vanessa Ziegler

3 goals

Ellie Brazil Hannah Cain Anna Filbey Klara Bühl Sophie Haug

2 goals

Grace Smith Georgia Stanway Ella Ann Toone Marie Müller Miljana Ivanović Silvia Rubio

1 goal

Karolina Zhitko Tanja Pawollek Benedetta Glionna Frida Maanum Ingrid Olsen Emilia Ruud Jovana Agbaba Teodora Burkert Tijana Filipović Allegra Poljak María Blanco Natalia Ramos

1 own goal

Sophia Kleinherne (playing against Spain)

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeepers Tanja Djapić Noelia Ramos

Defenders Markéta Klímová Tanja Pawollek Caroline Siems Laia Aleixandri Ona Batlle Lucía Rodríguez

Midfielders Georgia Stanway Janina Minge Frida Maanum Paula Fernández Silvia Rubio

Forwards Alessia Russo Klara Bühl Giulia Gwinn Allegra Poljak Candela Andújar

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The following three teams from UEFA qualified for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1 (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) (2010, 2014) (2008) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

References

External links

Belarus 2016, UEFA.com