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.

The tournament was co-hosted by Romania and Georgia. 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.

Host selection and

Both Romania and Georgia bid for the tournament separately. The two countries were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 3 December 2020.

Qualification

Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).

TeamMethod of qualificationDate of qualificationAppearanceLast appearancePrevious best performance 4th 2021 (2019) 1st Debut 4th 2019 (2007) 16th 2021 (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019) 14th 2021 (2009, 2017, 2021) 10th 2021 (1994, 2015, 2021) 17th 2021 (1982, 1984) 9th 2021 (2006, 2007) 11th 2021 (1988) 22nd 2021 (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004) 3rd 2013 (1998, 2013) 5th 2021 (2011) 3rd 2011 (2006) 9th 2021 (2002) 5th 2021 (2021) 3rd 2013 (2007, 2013) Notes

Final draw The final draw was held on 18 October 2022, 18:00 CET in Bucharest. 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: 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.

+Pot 1 Team 41,837 40,130 39,668 37,887 +Pot 2 Team 36,626 35,798 35,244 32,414 +Pot 3 Team 31,945 31,744 31,550 30,455 +Pot 4 Team 29,362 27,872 25,732 (position A1) 24,442

Venues Romania The Federația Română de Fotbal originally proposed the following eight venues in Romania: 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.

BucharestVenues in RomaniaBucharestSteaua StadiumRapid-Giulești StadiumCapacity: 31,254Capacity: 14,047Cluj-NapocaCluj-NapocaCluj ArenaDr. Constantin Rădulescu StadiumCapacity: 30,201Capacity: 22,198

Georgia In Georgia, the tournament was also played at four stadiums. 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. TbilisiVenues in GeorgiaTbilisiBoris PaichadzeMikheil MeskhiCapacity: 54,202Capacity: 27,223BatumiKutaisiAdjarabet ArenaRamaz Shengelia StadiumCapacity: 20,000Capacity: 14,700

Match officials

+ Group A–C Country Referee 1st assistant referee 2nd assistant referee Aliyar Aghayev Zeynal Zeynalov Akif Ämirälı Duje Strukan Bojan Zobenica Alen Jakšić Willy Delajod Erwan Christophe Finjean Cyril Mugnier Espen Eskås Jan Erik Engan Isaak Bashevkin Horațiu Feşnic Valentin Avram Alexandru Cerei Rade Obrenović Jure Praprotnik Grega Kordež

+ Group B–D Country Referee 1st assistant referee 2nd assistant referee Erik Lambrechts Jo De Weirdt Kevin Monteny Morten Krogh Steffen Bramsen Dennis Wollenberg Rasmussen Donatas Rumšas Aleksandr Radiuš Dovydas Sužiedėlis Allard Lindhout Erwin E. J. Zeinstra Rogier Honig João Pinheiro Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus Luciano António Gomes Maia 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.

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): 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

Group B

Group C

Group D

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.

Bracket

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.

Final

Goalscorers

Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: Player of the Tournament: Anthony Gordon Top Scorer: Sergio Gómez / Abel Ruiz / Heorhiy Sudakov (3 goals each)

Team of the tournament After the tournament the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.

PositionPlayerGoalkeeper James TraffordDefenders Juan Miranda Levi Colwill Taylor Harwood-Bellis James GarnerMidfielders Rodri Antonio Blanco Curtis Jones Sergio GómezForwards 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.

Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in Summer Olympics1 Hosts 13 (1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1984, 1996, 2020) Semi-finalist 2 (1968, 1976) Runners-up 11 (1920, 1924, 1928, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2012, 2020) Semi-finalist 0 (debut) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

References

External links