2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

Tournament details
Dates	20 March 2019 – 18 November 2020
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	255
Goals scored	822 (3.22 per match)
Attendance	368,240 (1,444 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Eddie Nketiah (13 goals)
← 2019 2023 →

The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 footballtournament that determined the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia in the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final. ^[1]

Apart from Hungary and Slovenia, all the remaining 53 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 1998 are eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition would originally consist of the following two rounds: ^[2]

• Qualifying group stage: The 53 teams are drawn into nine groups: eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. Each group is played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualify directly for the tournament final, while the remaining eight runners-up advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The eight teams are drawn into four ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last four qualified teams.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe which caused the postponement of matches in the qualifying group stage, UEFA announced on 17 June 2020 that the play-offs would be cancelled. Instead, the nine group winners and the five best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualify for the tournament final. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying group stage, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 14.01): ^[2]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Wins in all group matches;
10. Away wins in all group matches;
11. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
12. UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

To determine the five best runners-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in sixth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 15.02): ^[2]

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points;
8. UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the UEFA Executive Committee approved on 28 August 2020 the following principles for the qualifying phase of the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship: ^[6]

• If a team cannot field the minimum required number of players (at least 13 players including at least one goalkeeper) due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and the match cannot be rescheduled, the team responsible for the match not taking place are considered to have forfeited the match and lost 0–3.
• If UEFA comes to the conclusion that both or none of the teams are responsible for the match not taking place, the outcome of the match will be decided by drawing of lots, either home win 1–0, home loss 0–1 or draw 0–0, carried out by the UEFA administration.

Schedule

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA International Match Calendar. The qualifying group stage was originally to end in October 2020, but was extended to November 2020 due to the postponement of the matches in March 2020. The play-offs, originally scheduled to be played between 9–17 November 2020, were cancelled. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Stage	Draw date	FIFA International Dates
Qualifying group stage	11 December 2018	18–26 March 2019
		3–11 June 2019
		2–10 September 2019
		7–15 October 2019
		11–19 November 2019
		23–31 March 2020 (matches not played due to COVID-19 pandemic) [7]
		31 August – 8 September 2020
		5–13 October 2020
		9–18 November 2020 (new dates for matches postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) [5]

Qualifying group stage

Draw

The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 11 December 2018, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. ^[8]

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

• 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final and qualifying competition (20%)
• 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament final and qualifying competition (40%)
• 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition (40%)

Each group contained one team from each of Pots A–F (Pots A–E for five-team group). Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, Spain and Gibraltar, and Serbia and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group. ^[8]

tournament final co-hosts

Team
Hungary
Slovenia

Teams entering qualifying group stage

Pot A Team   Germany   England   Spain   Portugal   Denmark   France   Italy   Serbia   Croatia	Pot B Team   Austria   Sweden   Belgium   Slovakia   Poland   Romania   Czech Republic   Netherlands   Israel	Pot C Team   Greece   Ukraine   Norway   Russia   Turkey   Iceland   Wales    Switzerland   Montenegro
Pot D Team   Bulgaria   Finland   Republic of Ireland   Georgia   Kosovo   Scotland   North Macedonia   Belarus   Bosnia and Herzegovina	Pot E Team   Northern Ireland   Albania   Moldova   Lithuania   Kazakhstan   Latvia   Azerbaijan   Armenia   Cyprus	Pot F Team   Luxembourg   Malta   Estonia   Faroe Islands   Gibraltar   Andorra   San Marino   Liechtenstein

Notes

• Teams marked in bold qualified for the tournament final.

Groups

Group 1

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	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 [lower-alpha 1]			0–1	0–3 [lower-alpha 2]	0–1	0–3 [lower-alpha 3]	—	2–0
6	Luxembourg	10	1	0	9	3	29	−26	3 [lower-alpha 1]			0–4	0–2	1–2	0–3	2–1	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. 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. ^[9]
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. ^[9]

Group 2

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	10	9	0	1	32	10	+22	27	Final tournament		—	3–1	3–2	1–0	5–0	5–0
2	Switzerland	10	9	0	1	26	8	+18	27			3–1	—	2–1	4–1	2–1	3–0
3	Georgia	10	5	0	5	17	14	+3	15			0–2	0–3	—	2–1	1–0	4–0
4	Slovakia	10	4	0	6	22	21	+1	12			3–5	1–2	3–2	—	2–1	6–0
5	Azerbaijan	10	2	0	8	6	18	−12	6			1–2	0–1	0–3	2–1	—	1–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	1	0	9	3	35	−32	3			0–5	0–5	0–2	2–4	1–0	—

Source: UEFA

Group 3

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	10	9	1	0	34	9	+25	28	Final tournament		—	5–1	5–0	2–1	2–0	3–1
2	Austria	10	6	0	4	24	16	+8	18			1–2	—	1–5	3–0	4–0	4–0
3	Albania	10	4	2	4	16	21	−5	14			0–3	0–4	—	1–2	2–1	3–1
4	Turkey	10	4	1	5	15	18	−3	13			2–3	3–2	2–2	—	3–0	1–0
5	Kosovo	10	3	0	7	9	20	−11	9			0–6	0–1	0–1	3–1	—	1–0
6	Andorra	10	1	2	7	10	24	−14	5			3–3	1–3	2–2	2–0	0–4	—

Source: UEFA

Group 4

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	6	3	1	20	4	+16	21	Final tournament		—	0–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	6–0
2	Croatia	10	6	2	2	37	7	+30	20			1–2	—	1–2	5–0	7–0	10–0
3	Scotland	10	5	3	2	16	5	+11	18			2–0	2–2	—	0–1	0–0	2–0
4	Greece	10	5	1	4	10	11	−1	16			0–2	0–1	1–0	—	1–0	5–0
5	Lithuania	10	3	1	6	9	15	−6	10			0–1	1–3	0–1	2–0	—	3–0
6	San Marino	10	0	0	10	0	50	−50	0			0–6	0–7	0–7	0–1	0–3	—

Source: UEFA

Group 5

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia	10	7	2	1	22	4	+18	23	Final tournament		—	2–2	2–0	1–0	4–0	2−0
2	Poland	10	6	2	2	19	8	+11	20			1–0	—	1–1	1–0	4–0	3–1
3	Bulgaria	10	5	3	2	14	5	+9	18			0–0	3−0	—	0–1	3–0	1–0
4	Serbia	10	3	3	4	12	9	+3	12			0–2	1–0	1–2	—	6−0	1–1
5	Estonia	10	1	2	7	3	34	−31	5			0–5	0–6	0–4	0–0	—	2–1
6	Latvia	10	0	4	6	7	17	−10	4			1–4	0–1	0–0	2–2	1–1	—

Source: UEFA

Group 6

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	10	9	1	0	20	1	+19	28	Final tournament		—	3–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	2–0
2	North Macedonia	10	5	3	2	20	12	+8	18			0–1	—	1–1	1–1	7–1	2–1
3	Israel	10	3	4	3	12	14	−2	13			1–1	1–1	—	1–2	3–1	0–0
4	Kazakhstan	10	3	1	6	12	21	−9	10			0–1	1–4	1–2	—	2–3	0–4
5	Faroe Islands	10	3	0	7	11	25	−14	9			0–2	1–2	3–1	1–3	—	1–0
6	Montenegro	10	2	1	7	11	13	−2	7			0–2	1–2	1–2	1–2	3–0	—

Source: UEFA

Group 7

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	10	9	0	1	46	5	+41	27 [lower-alpha 1]	Final tournament		—	4–2	2–0	5–0	5–1	5–0
2	Portugal	10	9	0	1	29	9	+20	27 [lower-alpha 1]			2–1	—	4–1	3–0	2–1	4–0
3	Norway	8	3	1	4	14	16	−2	10			0–4	2–3	—	Canc.	2–1	6–0
4	Belarus	9	2	2	5	15	21	−6	8			0–7	0–2	1–1	—	1–2	10–0
5	Cyprus	9	2	1	6	8	24	−16	7			0–7	0–4	1–2	1–1	—	1–0
6	Gibraltar	8	0	0	8	0	37	−37	0			0–6	0–3	Canc.	0–2	Canc.	—

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Notes:

1. Ranked on head-to-head goal difference: Netherlands +1, Portugal −1.

Group 8

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 8

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	10	8	2	0	21	9	+12	26	Final tournament		—	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	5–1
2	Romania	10	6	2	2	22	7	+15	20			1–1	—	3–0	4–1	3–0	4–1
3	Ukraine	10	5	1	4	17	11	+6	16			2–3	1–0	—	0–2	3–0	4–0
4	Finland	10	4	1	5	14	15	−1	13			0–1	1–3	0–2	—	1–1	4–0
5	Northern Ireland	10	2	3	5	7	13	−6	9			0–1	0–0	1–0	2–3	—	0–0
6	Malta	10	0	1	9	4	30	−26	1			1–3	0–3	1–4	0–1	0–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group 9

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 9

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	8	6	0	2	22	10	+12	18	Final tournament		—	2–3	1–0	2–1	4–1
2	Belgium	8	4	1	3	18	9	+9	13			4–1	—	0–0	5–0	4–1
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	3	2	3	9	7	+2	11			0–2	3–2	—	1–0	4–0
4	Wales	8	3	0	5	8	15	−7	9			1–5	1–0	1–0	—	3–0
5	Moldova	8	2	1	5	6	22	−16	7			0–5	1–0	1–1	2–1	—

Source: UEFA

Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the five best second-placed teams from the qualifying group stage which qualify to the tournament final, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third, fourth and fifth-placed teams in their group are taken into account, while results against the sixth-placed team in six-team groups are not included. As a result, eight matches played by each second-placed team are counted for the purposes of determining the ranking.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	7	Portugal	8	7	0	1	22	9	+13	21	tournament final
2	2	Switzerland	8	7	0	1	18	8	+10	21
3	1	Iceland	8	5	0	3	14	12	+2	15
4	4	Croatia	8	4	2	2	20	7	+13	14
5	8	Romania	8	4	2	2	15	6	+9	14
6	5	Poland	8	4	2	2	15	7	+8	14
7	9	Belgium	8	4	1	3	18	9	+9	13
8	6	North Macedonia	8	3	3	2	16	10	+6	12
9	3	Austria	8	4	0	4	17	15	+2	12

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) away goals scored; 5) wins; 6) away wins; 7) disciplinary points; 8) coefficient ranking.

Play-offs

The draw for the play-offs, to decide the matchups and the order of legs, was intended to be held on 16 October 2020 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The matches were intended to be played between 9–17 November 2020, with the four play-off winners qualifying for the tournament final. However, the play-offs were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[5]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualify for the tournament final.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in U21 Euro 1 only U21 era (since 1978)
Hungary	Co-hosts	3 December 2018 [1]	4 (1978, 1980, 1986, 1996)
Slovenia	Co-hosts	3 December 2018 [1]	0 (debut)
Italy	Group 1 winners	15 November 2020	20 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992 , 1994 , 1996 , 2000 , 2002, 2004 , 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 )
France	Group 2 winners	12 November 2020	9 (1982, 1984, 1986, 1988 , 1994 , 1996, 2002, 2006, 2019)
England	Group 3 winners	13 October 2020	15 (1978, 1980, 1982 , 1984 , 1986, 1988, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)
Czech Republic	Group 4 winners	17 November 2020	13 (1978 2 , 1980 2 , 1988 2 , 1990 2 , 1992 2 , 1994 2 , 1996, 2000, 2002 , 2007, 2011, 2015 , 2017)
Russia	Group 5 winners	13 October 2020	6 ( 1980 3 , 1982 3 , 1990 3 , 1994, 1998, 2013)
Spain	Group 6 winners	13 October 2020	14 (1982, 1984, 1986 , 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996 , 1998 , 2000, 2009, 2011 , 2013 , 2017, 2019 )
Netherlands	Group 7 winners	13 October 2020	8 (1988, 1990, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2006 , 2007 , 2013)
Denmark	Group 8 winners	13 October 2020	8 (1978, 1986, 1992, 2006, 2011 , 2015, 2017, 2019)
Germany	Group 9 winners	17 November 2020	12 (1982 4 , 1990 4 , 1992, 1996, 1998, 2004 , 2006, 2009 , 2013, 2015, 2017 , 2019)
Portugal	1st best runners-up	15 November 2020	8 (1994, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2006 , 2007, 2015, 2017)
Switzerland	2nd best runners-up	13 October 2020	3 ( 2002 , 2004, 2011)
Iceland	3rd best runners-up	24 November 2020	1 (2011)
Croatia	4th best runners-up	17 November 2020	3 (2000, 2004, 2019)
Romania	5th best runners-up	17 November 2020	2 ( 1998 , 2019)

¹Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

² As Czechoslovakia

³ As Soviet Union

⁴ As West Germany

Top goalscorers

There were 822 goals scored in 255 matches, for an average of 3.22 goals per match.

13 goals

• Eddie Nketiah

11 goals

• Odsonne Édouard

10 goals

• Dani de Wit

9 goals

• Andi Zeqiri

8 goals

• Myron Boadu
• Kaj Sierhuis

7 goals

• Luka Ivanušec
• Andreas Skov Olsen
• Lukas Nmecha
• Halil Dervişoğlu

6 goals

• Loïs Openda
• Gianluca Scamacca
• Jesper Karlsson

For full lists of goalscorers, see sections in each group:

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5
• Group 6
• Group 7
• Group 8
• Group 9

References

1. "VAR to be used in UEFA Champions League knockout phase". UEFA. 3 December 2018.
2. "2019-21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship regulations" (PDF). UEFA.
3. "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
4. "Updated UEFA competitions calendar". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
5. "Under-21 EURO: New format and schedule announced". UEFA.com. 17 June 2020.
6. "UEFA Executive Committee approves new principles for upcoming national team matches". UEFA.com. 31 August 2020.
7. "COVID-19: latest updates on UEFA competitions". UEFA.com. 17 March 2020.
8. "2020/21 Under-21 qualifying draw". UEFA.com.
9. "AB: Armenian under-21 national team". UEFA.com. 24 November 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Under-21 Matches: 2021 Qualifying, UEFA.com