The 2018 UEFA Futsal Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Futsal Euro 2018, was the 11th edition of the UEFA Futsal Championship, the international futsal championship organised by UEFA for the men's national teams of Europe. It was hosted for the first time in Slovenia, following a decision of the UEFA Executive Committee on 26 January 2015. Slovenia was chosen ahead of other bids from Macedonia and Romania.

The final tournament was contested from 30 January to 10 February and comprised 12 teams, eleven of which joined the hosts Slovenia after overcoming a qualifying tournament. Matches took place at the Arena Stožice in Ljubljana. In their second appearance in the competition's final after 2010, Portugal defeated seven-time winners and defending champions Spain 3–2, after extra-time, to win their first European title.

This was the last tournament to be held on a two-year basis and featuring 12 teams, as the competition will be played every four years, starting from 2022, and include 16 teams.

Qualification

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition (including Germany and Kosovo which entered for the first time), and with the hosts Slovenia qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition, which took place from January to September 2017, consisted of three rounds: Preliminary round: The 26 lowest-ranked teams were drawn into seven groups – five groups of four teams and two groups of three teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the pre-selected hosts. The seven group winners advanced to the main round. Main round: The 28 teams (21 highest-ranked teams and seven preliminary round qualifiers) were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the pre-selected hosts. The seven group winners qualified directly to the final tournament, while the seven runners-up and the best third-placed team advanced to the play-offs. Play-offs: The eight teams were drawn into four ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last four qualified teams.

Qualified teams The following 12 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Method of qualificationAppearance Last appearance Previous best performance 6th 2016 (2014) Main round Group 1 winners 11th 2016 (2003, 2014) Main round Group 2 winners 5th 2016 (2010) Main round Group 3 winners 10th 2016 (2001, 2003) Main round Group 4 winners 9th 2016 (2010) Main round Group 5 winners 11th 2016 (1996, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2016) Main round Group 6 winners 2nd 2016 (2016) Main round Group 7 winners 11th 2016 (1999) Play-off winners 1st — Play-off winners 2nd 2001 (2001) Play-off winners 4th 2014 (2012, 2014) Play-off winners 6th 2016 (2016)

Final draw The final draw was held on 29 September 2017, 12:00 CEST (UTC+2), at Ljubljana Castle in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The 12 teams were drawn into four groups of three teams. Hosts Slovenia were assigned to position A1 in the draw, and the remaining teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, except that title holders Spain were automatically placed into Pot 1.

Each group contained one team from Pot 1, one team from Pot 2, and one team from Pot 3. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine could not be drawn in the same group or in groups scheduled to be played on the same day (due to a potential clash of teams and clash of fans). Therefore, if Russia were drawn in Group B, Ukraine had to be drawn in Group C or D, and if Russia were drawn in Group C or D, Ukraine had to be drawn in Group A or B.

+Hosts + Pot 1 Team (hosts) 6.389 7 (holders) 10.017 2 10.605 1 9.250 3+Pot 2 Team 8.889 4 7.944 5 7.544 6 6.333 8+Pot 3 Team 5.556 9 4.278 12 2.056 19 1.278 23

Venues

All matches were played at the 12,480-capacity for futsal matches Arena Stožice in Ljubljana.

Ljubljana Arena Stožice Capacity: 12,480

Match officials A total of 16 match officials were appointed for the final tournament.

Saša Tomić (Croatia) Ondřej Černý (Czech Republic) Marc Birkett (England) Timo Onatsu (Finland) Cédric Pelissier (France) Balázs Farkas (Hungary) Gábor Kovács (Hungary) Angelo Galante (Italy) Alessandro Malfer (Italy) Eduardo Fernandes Coelho (Portugal) Bogdan Sorescu (Romania) Vladimir Kadykov (Russia) Admir Zahovič (Slovenia) Juan José Cordero Gallardo (Spain) Alejandro Martínez Flores (Spain) Kamil Çetin (Turkey)

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 14 players, two of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.

Group stage The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 16 October 2017.

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

Tiebreakers 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 19.01 and 19.02): 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); Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CET (UTC+1).

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage If a match is drawn after 40 minutes of regular play, an extra time consisting of two five-minute periods is played. If teams are still leveled after extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner. In the third place match, the extra time is skipped and the decision goes directly to kicks from the penalty mark (Regulations Articles 20.02 and 20.03).

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

Tournament ranking Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-out are counted as draws. TeamFinal result1 5500239+1415Champions2 52211312+18Runners-up3 522175+28Third place4 5221149+58Fourth place5 311145–14Eliminated in Quarter-finals6 310268–237 3102612–638 302146–229 201123–11Eliminated in Group stage10 201179–2111 201126–4112 200237–40

Statistics All-star squad Top five players are bolded.

Player GK Georgi Zamtaradze GK Leo Higuita FP Taynan da Silva FP Douglas Júnior FP André Coelho FP Pedro Cary FP Bruno Coelho FP Ricardinho FP Ivan Chishkala FP Mladen Kocić FP Igor Osredkar FP Miguelín FP Pola FP Petro Shoturma

Awards

Award Player Best Player Ricardinho Golden Shoe Ricardinho Silver Shoe Bruno Coelho Bronze Shoe Eder Lima

Goalscorers 7 goals

Ricardinho

6 goals

Bruno Coelho

5 goals

Eder Lima

4 goals

Douglas Jr. Pedro Cary

3 goals

Bolinha Taynan da Silva Serik Zhamankulov Pola

2 goals

Everton Cardoso Abdessamad Mohammed Souheil Mouhoudine André Coelho Dragan Tomić Igor Osredkar Marc Tolrà Taras Korolyshyn Petro Shoturma

1 goal

Eduardo Samir Alla Landry N'Gala Massimo De Luca Humberto Honorio Leo Higuita Birzhan Orazov Mikhail Pershin Pavel Taku Michał Kubik Dominik Solecki Tiago Brito Fábio Cecílio Nílson Miguel Pany Varela Florin Ignat Dumitru Stoica Sávio Valadares Ivan Chishkala Robinho Slobodan Rajčević Denis Ramić Alen Fetić Gašper Vrhovec Adolfo Bebe Joselito Lin Miguelín Solano Oleksandr Pediash Volodymyr Razuvanov

1 own goal

Azdine Aigoun (playing against Spain) Chingiz Yesenamanov (playing against Spain) Carlos Ortiz (playing against France)

References

External links

UEFA Futsal Euro history: 2017/18 UEFA Futsal EURO Slovenia 2018, UEFA.com UEFA Futsal EURO Slovenia 2018 tournament website