2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

The 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 61st edition of UEFA's European Under-19 Championship and took place in Estonia from 3 to 15 July. Spain were the defending champions. This competition also acted as a qualifying competition for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup, as six sides from Europe qualify.
Players born after [|1] January 1993 were eligible to participate in this competition.

Qualification

Qualification for the final tournament occurred in two stages: a qualifying round and an elite round. During these rounds, 51 national teams competed to determine the seven teams that would join the automatically qualified host nation Estonia.
The qualifying round was played between 21 September and 16 November 2011. Liechtenstein did not enter and England, France and Spain received a bye to the elite round as a result of their UEFA ranking coefficient. The remaining 48 teams were divided into 12 groups of four teams, with each group being contested as a mini-tournament hosted by one of the group's teams. After all matches were played, the 12 group winners, 12 group runners-up and the best third-placed team advanced to the elite round.
The elite round was played between 23 and 31 May 2012. The 28 teams entering this phase were split into seven groups of four teams for a further round of mini-tournaments. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament:

Country	Qualified as	Previous appearances in final tournament¹ only U-19 era
	Hosts	0
	Winner of Group 1	5
	Winner of Group 2	6
	Winner of Group 3	4
	Winner of Group 4	4
	Winner of Group 5	4
	Winner of Group 6	1
	Winner of Group 7	8

Venues

Match officials

UEFA named six referees and eight assistant referees for the tournament on 18 June 2012, all who are young and upcoming top referees in Europe. Additionally two Estonian referees were chosen as fourth officials for the group stage matches.

Country

Referee

Results

Group stage

The draw was held on 6 June 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia.
Each group winner and runner-up advanced to the semifinals. The top three teams in each group also qualified for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
Superior goal difference 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 applying criteria 1) to 3) to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 3) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5) and 7) will apply
Results of all group matches:
# Superior goal difference
# Higher number of goals scored
Respect Fair Play ranking of the teams in question
Drawing of lots

Additionally, if two teams which have the same number of points and the same number of goals scored and conceded play their last group match against each other and are still equal at the end of that match, their final rankings are determined by the penalty shoot-out and not by the criteria listed above. This procedure is applicable only if a ranking of the teams is required to determine the group winner and the runner-up.

Legend

Advanced to semifinals and qualified for the 2013 U-20 World Cup

Qualified for the 2013 U-20 World Cup

''All times are Eastern European Summer Time ''