The 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship started with a qualifying competition which began in March 2013 and finished in September 2014. The final tournament was held in the Czech Republic. The draw for the qualifying rounds was held on 31 January 2013 in Nyon, with matches played between March 2013 and September 2014.

There were ten groups. Two of these groups had six teams; the remaining eight groups consisted of five teams. Group competition was a double round robin: each team hosted a game with every other team in its group. At the conclusion of qualifying, the 10 teams at the top of each group and four best second-placed teams qualified for the two-legged play-offs scheduled in October 2014, with the seven winners of the play-off ties joining Czech Republic in the finals.

Seeding

A total of fifty-two participating teams were divided in five draw pots based on the UEFA Under-21 coefficient ranking. Pots A through D contained ten teams, while pot E twelve teams.

Pot APot BPot CPot DPot E
Spain England Netherlands Italy Germany Switzerland Russia France Sweden IsraelRomania Serbia Turkey Ukraine Scotland Portugal Austria Denmark Belarus WalesGreece Slovakia Belgium Hungary Armenia Croatia Norway Montenegro Finland SloveniaBosnia and Herzegovina Poland Georgia Iceland Moldova Republic of Ireland Bulgaria Cyprus Macedonia LatviaNorthern Ireland Albania Faroe Islands Lithuania Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Estonia Malta Luxembourg Andorra Liechtenstein San Marino

Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn against Azerbaijan (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Georgia would not be drawn against Russia (due to the dispute regarding the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia) in the qualifiers for 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

  1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question
  2. Superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question
  3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question
  4. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question
  5. If, after applying criteria 1) to 4) to several teams, two or more teams still have an equal ranking, the criteria 1) to 4) will be reapplied to determine the ranking of these teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6) and 7) will apply
  6. Results of all group matches: Superior goal difference Higher number of goals scored Higher number of goals scored away from home
  7. Position in the UEFA Under-21 coefficient ranking used for the group stage draw

Qualifying group stage

Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and four best runners up advance to the play-offs

Group 1

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1England10910312+2928Play-offs—3–01–01–05–09–0
2Finland104421710+7161–1—1–02–22–25–0
3Moldova10514126+6160–31–0—0–03–02–0
4Wales103341213−1121–31–51–0—2–04–0
5Lithuania10226619−1380–10–10–31–1—2–1
6San Marino10118230−2840–40–00–31–00–1—

Group 2

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Denmark10820379+2826Play-offs—4–22–27–18–06–0
2Russia107122212+10220–2—2–13–11–05–0
3Slovenia105232911+18172–20–1—2–10–15–0
4Bulgaria102351826−892–33–31–5—1–13–0
5Estonia10235923−1490–11–21–72–2—1–1
6Andorra10019135−3410–20–30–50–30–2—

Group 3

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Slovakia8521197+1217Play-offs—2–21–11–03–0
2Netherlands8512226+16160–1—4–00–13–1
3Scotland83231215−3112–11–6—1–13–0
4Georgia8314815−7101–30–62–1—0–3
5Luxembourg8107523−1831–70–10–30–3—

Group 4

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Spain8710246+1822Play-offs—1–11–03–24–0
2Austria85121512+3162–6—4–22–01–3
3Hungary83051213−190–10–2—4–10–2
4Bosnia and Herzegovina82061022−1261–60–21–4—4–1
5Albania8206715−860–20–11–20–1—

Group 5

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Croatia8611205+1519Play-offs—1–10–23–14–0
2Ukraine8611208+12190–2—2–02–13–0
3Switzerland8503238+15150–21–2—7–15–1
4Latvia82061122−1161–31–50–2—4–0
5Liechtenstein8008334−3100–52–50–60–2—

Group 6

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Germany8620255+2020Play-offs—8–02–02–03–2
2Romania83321419−5122–2—4–30–03–1
3Montenegro83231211+1111–13–2—0–03–0
4Republic of Ireland82241012−280–40–11–2—5–2
5Faroe Islands8116923−1440–32–21–01–4—

Group 7

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Sweden85122014+616Play-offs—3–03–14–35–0
2Greece85032010+10155–1—3–12–15–0
3Poland85031710+7152–03–1—3–12–0
4Turkey84131611+5132–21–01–0—4–0
5Malta8008230−2801–20–41–50–3—

Group 8

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Portugal8800226+1624Play-offs—3–05–13–12–0
2Israel85032215+7153–4—4–17–22–1
3Norway83051119−891–21–3—1–32–1
4Azerbaijan8215915−670–23–00–1—0–0
5Macedonia8116413−940–10–31–31–0—

Group 9

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1Italy8602197+1218Play-offs—3–21–37–13–0
2Serbia85121810+8161–0—2–22–13–1
3Belgium8512157+8160–10–3—2–01–0
4Cyprus8206721−1460–22–10–6—3–0
5Northern Ireland8107317−1430–21–40–11–0—

Group 10

PosTeamvtePldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
1France8710287+2122Play-offs—1–15–06–01–0
2Iceland85122011+9163–4—2–04–04–1
3Kazakhstan8305818−1091–53–2—0–11–2
4Armenia8305719−1291–41–21–2—2–1
5Belarus8107614−831–21–20–10–1—

Ranking of second-placed teams

Because some groups contain six teams and some five, matches against the sixth-placed team in each group are not included in this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team will count for the purposes of the second-placed table.

The following criteria are applied to determine the rankings.

  1. Higher number of points obtained in these matches
  2. Superior goal difference from these matches
  3. Higher number of goals scored in these matches
  4. Higher number of away goals scored in these matches
  5. Position in the UEFA Under-21 coefficient ranking used for the group stage draw
PosGrpTeamPldWDLGFGAGDPtsQualification
15Ukraine8611208+1219Play-offs
23Netherlands8512226+1616
310Iceland85122011+916
49Serbia85121810+816
54Austria85121512+316
62Russia85121412+216
77Greece85032010+1015
88Israel85032215+715
91Finland83321210+212
106Romania83321419−512

Play-offs

The play-offs for the tournament finals were held on 9,10 and 14 October 2014. The seven winners qualify for the final tournament in Czech Republic.

Seedings

The draw for the play-offs was held on 12 September 2014 in Nyon to determine the seven pairings as well as the order of the home and away ties. The seven group winners with the highest competition coefficients were seeded and were drawn against the unseeded teams. Nations from the same group could not be drawn against each other.

Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:

Seeded Spain Italy England France Germany Portugal DenmarkUnseeded Sweden Slovakia Croatia Ukraine Netherlands Iceland Serbia

Matches

Team 1Agg.Tooltip Aggregate scoreTeam 21st leg2nd leg
Slovakia2–4Italy1–11–3
France3–4Sweden2–01–4
Denmark1–1 (a)Iceland0–01–1
England4–2Croatia2–12–1
Netherlands4–7Portugal0–24–5
Ukraine0–5Germany0–30–2
Serbia2–1Spain0–02–1

Top goalscorers

The top scorers in the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification were as follows. Players in italics have also played in the play-offs.

RankNameGoalsAppsMinutes played
1England Saido Berahino1010800
2Poland Arkadiusz Milik96517
3Spain Álvaro Morata87583
Iceland Emil Atlason810599
Israel Mu'nas Dabbur87616
6Croatia Marcelo Brozović77586
Netherlands Quincy Promes77596
Germany Philipp Hofmann710726

External links