2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 1

Group 1 of the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition consisted of six teams: Italy, Sweden, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia, and Luxembourg. The composition of the nine groups in the qualifying group stage was decided by the draw held on 11 December 2018, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland,[1] with the teams seeded according to their coefficient ranking.

The group was originally scheduled to be played in home-and-away round-robin format between 24 March 2019 and 13 October 2020. Under the original format, the group winners and the best runners-up among all nine groups (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) would qualify directly for the final tournament, while the remaining eight runners-up would advance to the play-offs.[2]

On 17 March 2020, all matches were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the qualifying group stage would be extended and end on 17 November 2020, while the play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in November 2020, would be cancelled. Instead, the group winners and the five best runners-up among all nine groups (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) would qualify for the final tournament.[4][5][6]

Standings

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification            
1   Italy 10 8 1 1 27 5 +22 25 Final tournament 3–0 2–0 4–1 6–0 5–0
2   Iceland 10 7 0 3 19 12 +7 21 1–2 1–0 1–0 6–1 3–0
3   Republic of Ireland 10 6 1 3 15 8 +7 19 0–0 1–2 4–1 1–0 3–0
4   Sweden 10 6 0 4 31 12 +19 18 3–0 5–0 1–3 10–0 4–0
5   Armenia 10 1 0 9 4 33 −29 3[a] 0–1 0–3[b] 0–1 0–3[c] 2–0
6   Luxembourg 10 1 0 9 3 29 −26 3[a] 0–4 0–2 1–2 0–3 2–1
Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Ranked on head-to-head goal difference: Armenia +1, Luxembourg −1.
  2. ^ The Armenia v Iceland match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Iceland after being cancelled as Armenia could not travel to the match due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the team.[7]
  3. ^ The Armenia v Sweden match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Sweden after being cancelled as Armenia could not travel to the match due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the team.[7]

Matches

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Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Republic of Ireland  3–0  Luxembourg
  • Idah   34', 68'
  • Farrugia   38'
Report

Iceland  3–0  Luxembourg
Report
Attendance: 412
Referee: Aleksandrs Anufrijevs (Latvia)
Republic of Ireland  1–0  Armenia
Report
Attendance: 3,658
Referee: Fyodor Zammit (Malta)

Iceland  6–1  Armenia
Report
Attendance: 335
Referee: Igor Pajac (Croatia)
Italy  5–0  Luxembourg
Report
Attendance: 5,000
Referee: Peter Kjaesgaard (Denmark)
Sweden  1–3  Republic of Ireland
Report
Attendance: 4078
Referee: Rade Obrenovic (Slovenia)

Republic of Ireland  0–0  Italy
Report
Attendance: 7,231
Referee: Sascha Stegemann (Germany)
Armenia  2–0  Luxembourg
Report
Attendance: 2,550
Referee: Sebastian Gishamer (Austria)
Sweden  5–0  Iceland
Report
Attendance: 1,832
Referee: Lawrence Visser (Belgium)

Armenia  0–1  Italy
Report
Attendance: 720
Referee: Ádám Farkas (Hungary)
Iceland  1–0  Republic of Ireland
Report
Attendance: 228
Referee: Dumitri Muntean (Moldova)
Luxembourg  0–3  Sweden
Report

Armenia  0–1  Republic of Ireland
Report
Italy  3–0  Iceland
Report
Attendance: 4129
Referee: Horatiu Fesnic (Romania)

Italy  6–0  Armenia
Report
Republic of Ireland  4–1  Sweden
Report
Attendance: 2760
Referee: Karim Abed (France)

Iceland  1–0  Sweden
Report
Attendance: 0[note 3]
Referee: Pavel Orel (Czech Republic)

Luxembourg  2–1  Armenia
Report
Attendance: 0[note 3]
Referee: Juxhin Xhaja (Albania)
Sweden  3–0  Italy
Report
Attendance: 0[note 3]
Referee: Luis Godinho (Portugal)

Sweden  4–0  Luxembourg
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Christian-Petru Ciochirca (Austria)

Italy  2–0  Republic of Ireland
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Krzysztof Jakubik (Poland)
Luxembourg  0–2  Iceland
Report
Attendance: 250
Referee: Ondrej Pechanec (Czech Republic)
Sweden  10–0  Armenia
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Milovan Milacic (Montenegro)

Iceland  1–2  Italy
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Ioannis Papadopoulos (Greece)
Armenia  0–3
Awarded[note 7]
  Sweden
Report

Republic of Ireland  1–2  Iceland
Report
Luxembourg  0–4  Italy
Report
Attendance: 100
Referee: Matthew De Gabriele (Malta)

Italy  4–1  Sweden
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Stuart Attwell (England)
Armenia  0–3
Awarded[note 7]
  Iceland
Report
Luxembourg  1–2  Republic of Ireland
Report
Attendance: 0
Referee: Kaarlo Oskari Hämäläinen (Finland)

Goalscorers

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There were 93 goals scored in 28 matches, for an average of 3.32 goals per match.

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

2 own goals

Notes

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  1. ^ CEST (UTC+2) for dates between 31 March and 26 October 2019 and between 29 March and 24 October 2020, and CET (UTC+1) for all other dates.
  2. ^ The match between Italy and Armenia was originally scheduled at 18:30 CET, but was postponed due to heavy rain.[8]
  3. ^ a b c Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, all matches scheduled for September 2020 were played behind closed doors.[9][10]
  4. ^ The match between Sweden and Armenia was played in Poland due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic between Sweden and Armenia.[11]
  5. ^ The match between Iceland and Italy was originally scheduled on 9 October 2020, 15:30 WET, at Víkingsvöllur, Reykjavík, but was postponed due to members of the Italy team testing positive for the COVID-19 virus.[12] It was rescheduled to 12 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f All matches originally scheduled to be played in March 2020 were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.[3] These matches were subsequently rescheduled to be played in November 2020.
  7. ^ a b The home matches of Armenia against Sweden and Iceland, originally scheduled to be played on 13 and 18 November 2020, were cancelled due to the large number of Armenia players testing positive of the COVID-19 virus and the difficulty of getting a new group of players to travel to Cyprus in short notice.[13] The matches were awarded as 3–0 wins to Sweden and Iceland.[7]
  8. ^ a b The home matches of Armenia against Sweden and Iceland were moved to the neutral venue of Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca (Cyprus), as UEFA announced on 20 October 2020 to temporarily suspend all UEFA matches taking place in Armenia and Azerbaijan until further notice due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[14]

References

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  1. ^ "2020/21 Under-21 qualifying draw". UEFA.com.
  2. ^ "2019-21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship regulations" (PDF). UEFA.
  3. ^ a b "COVID-19: latest updates on UEFA competitions". UEFA.com. 17 March 2020.
  4. ^ "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Updated UEFA competitions calendar". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  6. ^ "Under-21 EURO: New format and schedule announced". UEFA.com. 17 June 2020.
  7. ^ a b c "AB: Armenian under-21 national team". UEFA.com. 24 November 2020.
  8. ^ "Under 21, Italia-Armenia inizierà alle 21. Ufficiale la decisione dell'arbitro". Gazzetta dello Sport. 19 November 2019.
  9. ^ "UEFA meets general secretaries of member associations". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 19 August 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  10. ^ "UEFA Super Cup to test partial return of spectators". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Kvalmatchen mot Armenien flyttas till Polen". Svenska Fotbollförbundet. 30 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Leik U21 karla gegn Ítalíu frestað vegna Covid-smits í ítalska hópnum". Knattspyrnusamband Íslands. 9 October 2020.
  13. ^ "Հայաստանի Մ-21 հավաքականի մասնակցությամբ հանդիպումները չեն կայանա". Football Federation of Armenia. 11 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Temporary suspension of UEFA matches in Armenia and Azerbaijan". UEFA.com. 20 October 2020.
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