The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-17 Euro 2018) was the 11th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship. It is the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for women under-17 of Europe national teams. Lithuania, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament from 9 to 21 May 2018.

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2001 were the ones 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 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay as UEFA representatives.

Spain won their fourth title by beating defending champions Germany 2–0 in the final.

Qualifications

A total of 46 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Lithuania qualifying automatically; the other 45 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2017, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2018.

Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Method of qualificationAppearance Last appearance Previous best performance 1st — 3rd 2017 (semi-finals) (2010), (2017) 1st — 9th 2017 (runners-up) (2010, 2011, 2015) 3rd 2016 (group stage) (2014) 6th 2017 (group stage) (2016) 2nd 2013 (champions) (2013) 10th 2017 (champions) (2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017)

Final draw The final draw was held on 6 April 2018, 10:00 EEST (UTC+3), at the Kaunas State Musical Theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Lithuania were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues In January 2015 Lithuanian Football Federation announced plans to host championships in Kaunas, Alytus, Marijampolė and Jonava, although Central stadium of Jonava had to improve the conditions in stadium.Lietuvoje vyks Europos U-17 merginų futbolo čempionatas In early 2018 it was announced that competition would be held in three cities: Alytus, Marijampolė and Šiauliai.Europos merginų čempionato egzamino laukiančios lietuvės džiaugiasi šansu: bus didelė garbė kovoti Marijampolė Alytus Šiauliai Sūduva Stadium Alytus Stadium Savivaldybė Stadium Capacity: 6,500 Capacity: 3,748 Capacity: 4,000

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

Referees Khristiyana Guteva Lucie Šulcová Frida Mia Klarlund Nielsen Irena Velevačkoska Désirée Grundbacher Kateryna Usova

Assistant referees Sara Telek Almira Spahić Maja Petravić Polyxeni Irodotou Élodie Coppola Yelena Alistratova Diāna Vanaga Sandra Österberg

Fourth officials Rasa Imanalijeva Jurgita Mačikunytė

Squads

Each national team submitted a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 41).

Group stage The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 12 April 2018.

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

Tiebreakers In the group stage, 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 17.01 and 17.02): 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); UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw; Drawing of lots.

All times are local, EEST (UTC+3).

Group A

Group B

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

Bracket

Semi-finals Winners qualify for 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Losers enter the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off.

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off Winner qualifies for 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Final

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The following three teams from UEFA qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Team Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup1 5 (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016) 3 (2010, 2014, 2016) 0 (debut) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers Note: Goals scored in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off are included in this list, but are not counted by UEFA for statistical purposes.

9 goals

Shekiera Martinez

6 goals

Eva Navarro

4 goals

Ebony Salmon Annika Huhta (including 1 in play-off)

3 goals

Romée Leuchter Kirsten van de Westeringh

2 goals

Jess Park (including 1 in play-off) Aino Vuorinen Vanessa Fudalla Ivana Fuso Leonie Köster Sophie Weidauer Paula Arana

1 goal

Annabel Blanchard Paris McKenzie Kaisa Juvonen Jenni Kantanen (in play-off) Vilma Koivisto Gia Corley Laura Donhauser Dana Foederer Chasity Grant Gwyneth Hendriks Nikita Tromp Jonna van de Velde Paulina Filipczak Paulina Tomasiak Aida Esteve Paola Hernández

1 own goal

Kayla Rendell (against Germany) Laura Ubartaitė (against The Netherlands)

Team of the tournament The UEFA technical observers selected the following 11 players for the team of the tournament (previously a squad of 18 players were selected):

Goalkeeper Anna Koivunen

Defenders Ana Tejada Greta Stegemann Nana Yang

Midfielders Paola Hernández Ivana Fuso Vanessa Fudalla Jess Park Kirsten van de Westeringh

Forwards Eva Navarro Shekiera Martinez

References

External links

UEFA Women's Under-17 history: 2017/18 2018 Women's U17 EURO finals: Lithuania, UEFA.com