2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship
2015 Ευρωπαϊκό πρωτάθλημα ποδοσφαίρου Κ-19
Tournament details
Host country	Greece
Dates	6–19 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (10th title)
Runners-up	Russia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	36 (2.4 per match)
Attendance	70,612 (4,707 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Borja Mayoral (3 goals)
Best player(s)	Marco Asensio
	← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (64th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Greece hosted the tournament.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 1996 were eligible to participate in this competition.

Qualification

All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition and with the hosts Greece qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament.^[2] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.^[3]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.^[4]^[5]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).

Team	Method of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Greece	Hosts	6th	2012	Runners-up (2007, 2012)
Spain	Elite round Group 1 winners	11th	2013	Champions (2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012)
Germany	Elite round Group 2 winners	7th	2014	Champions (2008, 2014)
Russia	Elite round Group 3 winners	2nd	2007	Group stage (2007)
Netherlands	Elite round Group 4 winners	3rd	2013	Group stage (2010, 2013)
Ukraine	Elite round Group 5 winners	4th	2014	Champions (2009)
Austria	Elite round Group 6 winners	6th	2014	Semi-finals (2003, 2006, 2014)
France	Elite round Group 7 winners	8th	2013	Champions (2005, 2010)

Final draw

The final draw was held in Katerini, Greece on 9 June 2015 at 17:00 EEST (UTC+3).^[6]^[7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Greece were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

The competition was played at three venues in three host cities, Katerini and Veria in Central Macedonia, and Larissa in Thessaly.^[8]

Larissa	Veria	Katerini
AEL FC Arena	Municipal Stadium of Veria	Municipal Stadium of Katerini
39°36′55.5″N 22°23′57.8″E / 39.615417°N 22.399389°E / 39.615417; 22.399389 (AEL FC Arena)	40°32′02.9″N 22°12′08.2″E / 40.534139°N 22.202278°E / 40.534139; 22.202278 (Veria Stadium)	40°15′40.3″N 22°30′44.0″E / 40.261194°N 22.512222°E / 40.261194; 22.512222
Capacity: 16,118^[9]	Capacity: 7,000^[10]	Capacity: 4,956^[11]

Larissa Veria Katerini

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.^[3]

Match officials

A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.^[12]

Referees

Assistant referees

Petr Blazej (Czech Republic)
Ricardo Fernandes Morais (Luxembourg)
Vital Jobin (Switzerland)
Tomaz Klančnik (Slovenia)
Dejan Nedelkoski (Macedonia)
Neeme Neemlaid (Estonia)
Nemanja Petrović (Serbia)
Dennis Rasmussen (Denmark)

Fourth officials

Athanasios Giahos (Greece)
Andreas Pappas (Greece)

Group stage

2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship teams and final classification

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

if two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[3]

Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting 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 having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (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).
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Drawing of lots.

All times were local, EEST (UTC+3).^[13]