2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
The 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 20th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, a biennial international football competition for men's under-21 national teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first time in the Czech Republic from 15 to 30 June 2015, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 20 March 2012 in Istanbul.
Players born on or after 1 January 1992 were eligible to participate in the competition. Fifty-two teams participated in a qualification tournament, taking place between March 2013 and October 2014, to determine the seven teams that would join the final tournament [Czech Republic national under-21 association football|football team|hosts]. Holders Spain were not able to defend their title after being eliminated in the qualification play-offs by Serbia.
In the final, played at the Eden Arena in Prague, Sweden defeated Portugal 4–3 in a penalty shootout, after a goalless draw at the end of extra-time. In doing so, the Swedish team won their first title in this competition, having previously lost the 1992 final, and secured their first-ever title in UEFA youth competitions on the men's side.
By reaching the [|semi-finals], Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Sweden also qualified for the [Football at the Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics|2016 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament|2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament] in Brazil.
Qualification
Qualification for the final tournament of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship consisted of two rounds: a group stage and a play-off round. The group stage draw took place on 31 January 2013 in Nyon, Switzerland, and distributed 52 national teams into ten groups of five or six teams. Each group was contested in a double round-robin system, where teams played each other twice, at home and away. The ten group winners and the four best second-placed teams advanced to the play-off round, where they were paired by draw into seven two-legged ties. The play-off winners joined the Czech Republic in the final tournament.Qualified teams
The following teams qualified for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament:| Country | Qualified as | Previous appearances in tournament[|1] only U-21 era |
| Hosts | 11 | |
| Playoff winner | ||
| Playoff winner | 12 | |
| Playoff winner | 11 | |
| Playoff winner | 17 | |
| Playoff winner | ||
| Playoff winner | ||
| Playoff winner |
Venues
The competition was played at four venues in three host cities: Eden Arena and Generali Arena, Andrův stadion, and Stadion Miroslava Valenty.Match officials
Six refereeing teams took charge of matches at the final tournament:| Country | Referee | Assistant referees | Additional assistant referees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |1974SeedingThe draw for the final tournament took place at 18:00 CET on 6 November 2014, at the Clarion Congress Hotel in Prague. England, the highest-ranked team according to the competition coefficient rankings, and the host team, Czech Republic, were seeded and automatically assigned to separate groups. The second and third-ranked teams in the coefficient rankings, Italy and Germany, were also seeded and drawn into separate groups, while the four unseeded teams were drawn into the remaining positions of the two groups.
SquadsEach 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.Format of competitionsThe eight finalists were drawn into two groups of four teams. As hosts, Czech Republic were seeded in group A, while England, the best-ranked team in the UEFA coefficient ranking, were seeded in group B. In each group, teams played matches against each other in a round-robin system, and the top two teams advanced to the semi-finals.The provisional schedule was released by UEFA on 10 November 2014, and confirmed on [|2] December 2014. All times are in Central European Summer Time. After the conclusion of the group stage, the following four teams from UEFA qualified for the Olympic football tournament. Tie-breakingIf two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:
If only two teams were tied after having met in the last match of the group stage, their ranking would have been determined by a penalty shoot-out. Group A---- ---- Group B---- ---- Knockout stageIn the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.Semi-finals----Goalscorers;3 goals;2 goals ;1 goal
AwardsGolden BootThe Golden Boot is given to the player who scored the most goals during the tournament.
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Belgium