The 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (33rd edition if the Under-16 era was also included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Bulgaria hosted the tournament. The finals featured 16 teams for the first time since 2002, as the number of teams was increased from eight in the previous tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate in this competition.

The final tournament also acted as the UEFA qualifier for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, with six teams qualifying (the four semi-finalists and the two winners of play-off matches between the losing quarter-finalists).

Each match lasted 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes, with an interval of 15 minutes.

Qualification

All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition and with the hosts Bulgaria qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014 and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.

Qualified teams The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

Team Method of qualification Finals appearance Last appearance Previous best performance Hosts Debut Debut Elite round Group 1 winners 2012 (2004) Elite round Group 1 runners-up 2010 (2007, 2008) Elite round Group 2 winners 2013 (2005) Elite round Group 3 winners 2012 (2007) Elite round Group 3 runners-up 2014 (2011, 2012) Elite round Group 4 winners 2010 (2010) Elite round Group 4 runners-up 2008 (2008) Elite round Group 5 winners 2013 (2003) Elite round Group 5 runners-up 2013 (2006, 2013) Elite round Group 6 winners 2014 (2010, 2014) Elite round Group 6 runners-up 2012 (2012) Elite round Group 7 winners 2011 (2006) Elite round Group 7 runners-up 2014 (2014) Elite round Group 8 winners 2014 (2009) Elite round Group 8 runners-up 2013 (2013) Notes

Final draw The final draw was held in Pomorie, Bulgaria on 2 April 2015, 14:00 EEST (UTC+3). The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Bulgaria were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues The competition was played at four venues in four host cities: Beroe Stadium (in Stara Zagora), Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium (in Sliven), Lazur Stadium (in Burgas), and Arena Sozopol (in Sozopol). Stara Zagora Sliven Burgas Sozopol Beroe Stadium Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium Lazur Stadium Arena Sozopol Capacity: 11,684 Capacity: 8,500 Capacity: 19,004 Capacity: 2,599

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players.

Match officials A total of 9 referees, 12 assistant referees and 4 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.

Referees Marius Avram Danilo Grujić Adrien Jaccottet Mads-Kristoffer Kristoffersen Erik Lambrechts Dumitru Muntean Paweł Raczkowski Roi Reinshreiber Alan Mario Sant

Assistant referees Erik Arevshatyan Rejdi Avdo Mehmet Culum Namik Huseynov Gareth Jones Sten Klaasen Ville Koskiniemi Aleh Maslianka Nuno Pereira Romans Platonovs Dovydas Sužiedėlis Erik Weiss

Fourth officials Georgi Kabakov Tsvetan Krastev Nikola Popov Ivaylo Stoyanov

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-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: 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).

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).

Bracket

Quarter-finals Winners qualified for 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Losers played in FIFA U-17 World Cup play-offs.

FIFA U-17 World Cup play-offs Winners qualified for 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Semi-finals

Final

Goalscorers 8 goals Odsonne Édouard

3 goals

Ismail Azzaoui Jonathan Ikoné Felix Passlack

2 goals

Dennis Van Vaerenbergh Tonislav Yordanov Marcus Edwards Erdinc Karakas Vangelis Pavlidis Yegor Denisov Dmitri Pletnyov

1 goal

Oliver Filip Sandi Lovrić Rubin Seigers Matko Babić Adrian Blečić Davor Lovren Karlo Majić Nikola Moro Ondřej Lingr Bilal Boutobba Mamadou Doucouré Jordan Rambaud Johannes Eggestein Görkem Sağlam Niklas Schmidt Janni Serra Kostas Kirtzialidis Patrick Cutrone Simone Lo Faso Simone Mazzocchi Reda Boultam Aleksei Tatayev Carles Aleñá Francisco José Villalba José Luis Zalazar

Own goal

Gökhan Gül (playing against France) Federico Giraudo (playing against the Netherlands) Timothy Fosu-Mensah (playing against England)

Team of the tournament

Goalkeepers Jens Teunckens Constantin Frommann Defenders Alec Georgen Borna Sosa Marc Cucurella Wout Faes Dayot Upamecano

Midfielders Carles Aleñá Josip Brekalo Timothé Cognat Georgi Makhatadze Nikola Moro Marcus Edwards Forwards Felix Passlack Odsonne Édouard Jonathan Ikoné Chris Willock Jeff Reine-Adélaïde

References

External links History – UEFA European Under-17 Championship: 2014/15, UEFA.com Bulgaria 2015, UEFA.com Official website (Bulgarian)