2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification

2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 3 October – 14 November 2017; Elite round:; 21–27 March 2018
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	120
Goals scored	425 (3.54 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Erling Haaland; (9 goals)

The 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Finland in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.^[1]

Apart from Finland, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time).^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:^[3]

Qualifying round: Apart from Spain and Portugal, which received byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams were drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners and the 13 runners-up advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.

The schedule of each mini-tournament was as follows (Regulations Article 19.04):^[3]

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying round and elite round, 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 14.01 and 14.02):^[3]

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 for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 13 December 2016, 10:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[4]^[5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[6]

2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo could not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff	Rank
Finland	2.333	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	11.333	1
Portugal	11.167	2

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Austria	10.500	3
Germany	9.500	4
England	9.167	5
France	9.000	6
Ukraine	8.833	7
Russia	8.833	8
Serbia	8.500	9
Netherlands	8.333	10
Italy	7.333	11
Belgium	7.167	12
Czech Republic	7.000	13
Croatia	7.000	14
Turkey	6.667	15

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Israel	6.667	16
Montenegro	6.500	17
Georgia	6.333	18
Denmark	6.000	19
Sweden	5.833	20
Slovakia	5.833	21
Switzerland	5.667	22
Scotland	5.333	23
Greece	5.167	24
Republic of Ireland	5.000	25
Poland	4.667	26
Slovenia	4.333	27
Bulgaria	4.167	28

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Norway	4.167	29
Wales	3.833	30
Lithuania	3.667	31
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.667	32
Romania	3.333	33
Hungary	3.333	34
Macedonia	3.333	35
Luxembourg	2.667	36
Estonia	2.667	37
Latvia	2.667	38
Iceland	2.500	39
Northern Ireland	2.500	40
Azerbaijan	2.500	41

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Cyprus	2.500	42
Armenia	2.333	43
Belarus	1.667	44
Albania	1.667	45
Malta	1.333	46
Moldova	1.000	47
Andorra	0.333	48
Liechtenstein	0.333	49
Faroe Islands	0.333	50
Gibraltar	0.333	51
Kazakhstan	0.333	52
San Marino	0.000	53
Kosovo	—	54

Notes

Teams marked in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round had to be played by 19 November 2017, and on the following FIFA International Match Calendar dates unless all four teams agreed to play on another date:^[3]^[6]

28 August – 5 September 2017
2–10 October 2017
6–14 November 2017

Times up to 28 October 2017 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	3	3	0	0	11	3	+8	9	Elite round
2	Latvia	3	1	1	1	5	2	+3	4	Elite round
3	Croatia (H)	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4	San Marino	3	0	0	3	0	11	−11	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

8 November 2017

12:00

Croatia	3–0	San Marino
Kulenović 13', 20' Nejašmić 38'	Report

Stadion Valbruna, Rovinj

Attendance: 70

Referee: Zaven Hovhannisyan (Armenia)

8 November 2017