2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

	Cup stub This article about 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship is a stub, an article too short to provide more than rudimentary information about a subject. You can help The Football Wiki by expanding it.

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Tournament details
Host countries	Hungary Slovenia
Dates	24–31 March 2021 (group stage) 31 May – 6 June 2021 (knockout stage)
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Germany (3rd title)
Runner-up	Portugal
Tournament statistics
Attendance	13,413
Top scorer(s)	Lukas Nmecha (4 goals)
Best player	Fábio Vieira
← 2019 2023 →

The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. Initially, 12 teams were to play in the tournament, however on 6 February 2019, UEFA's executive committee increased this number to 16. Only players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate.

The tournament will be co-hosted by Hungary and Slovenia. It was originally scheduled to take place from 9 to 26 June 2021. However, the tournament was rescheduled following the postponement of UEFA Euro 2020 to June/July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new dates were to be decided initially on 27 May 2020, but then postponed to 17 June 2020, where the UEFA Executive Committee meeting discussed the calendar and format of the tournament. On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced the tournament would be played in two stages; the group stage, which would take place from 24 to 31 March 2021, and the knockout stage, which would take place from 31 May to 6 June 2021.

Spain were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the knockout phase by Portugal.

Host selection

The following associations indicated their interests to bid for the tournament:

• Hungary / Slovenia (joint bid)

Hungary and Slovenia were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 3 December 2018.

Qualification

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 14 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:

• 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 final tournament, 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 final tournament.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Hungary	* !Co-hosts	02018-12-03-3 December 2018	5th	1996 (quarter-finals)	03 !Semi-finals (1986)
Slovenia	* !Co-hosts	02018-12-03-3 December 2018	1st	—	Debut

Final draw

The final draw will be held in late 2020. The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams. The two hosts will be assigned to positions A1 and B1 in the draw, while the other teams will be seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:

• 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
• 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (40%)
• 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition (group stage only) (40%)

Venues

The Hungarian Football Federation originally proposed the following four venues:

• MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár
• Haladás Sportkomplexum, Szombathely
• Bozsik József Stadion, Budapest
• Ménfői úti Stadion, Gyírmót-Győr

The Slovenian Football Association originally proposed the following four venues:

• Stadion Z'dežele, Celje
• Stožice Stadium, Ljubljana
• Ljudski vrt, Maribor
• Bonifika Stadium, Koper

The provisional schedule was announced on 6 November 2019, with the above eight venues hosting matches. Originally Hungary (Groups A and C) and Slovenia (Groups B and D) would both host two groups, two quarter-finals and one semi-final each, while the final would be played in Hungary at the MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár.

However, due to the rescheduling of the group stage from June to March, Bonifika Stadium, Koper was removed from the list of venues, and the final was moved to Slovenia and would be played at Ljudski vrt, Maribor. Moreover, it is possible that Group D may be played in another country other than Hungary and Slovenia, provided a team drawn into this group is interested in hosting, and the decision will be made after the final draw.

Squads

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers
In the 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 Articles 18.01 and 18.02):

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. 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;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
8. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
9. UEFA coefficient ranking for the final draw.

All times are local, CET (UTC+1) for matches between 24–27 March 2021, CEST (UTC+2) for matches between 28–31 March 2021.

Group A

Template:2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship group A

24 March 2021 (2021-03-24) 21:00	Hungary	0–3	Germany	MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár Attendance: 0 Referee: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández (Spain)
		Report	Nmecha  61' Baku  66', 73'

24 March 2021 (2021-03-24) 21:00	Romania	1–1	Netherlands	Bozsik Aréna, Budapest Attendance: 0 Referee: Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)
	Ciobanu  20'	Report	Schuurs  16'

---

27 March 2021 (2021-03-27) 18:00	Hungary	1–2	Romania	Bozsik Aréna, Budapest Attendance: 0 Referee: Lawrence Visser (Belgium)
	Csonka  56'	Report	Mățan  70' Pașcanu  87'

27 March 2021 (2021-03-27) 21:00	Germany	1–1	Netherlands	MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár Attendance: 0 Referee: Maurizio Mariani (Italy)
	Nmecha  84'	Report	Kluivert  48'

---

30 March 2021 (2021-03-30) 18:00	Netherlands	6–1	Hungary	MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár Attendance: 0 Referee: Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)
	De Wit  42' Boadu  47' (pen.) Gakpo  58', 70' Botman  87' Brobbey  89'	Report	Bolla  65' (pen.)

30 March 2021 (2021-03-30) 18:00	Germany	0–0	Romania	Bozsik Aréna, Budapest Attendance: 0 Referee: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández (Spain)
		Report

Group B

Template:2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship group B

Group C

Template:2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship group C

Group D

Template:2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship group D

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	31 May – Budapest
	Netherlands	2
					3 June – Székesfehérvár
	France	1
					Netherlands	1
	31 May – Székesfehérvár
					Germany	2
	Denmark	2 (5)
									6 June – Ljubljana
	Germany (p)	2 (6)
									Germany
	31 May – Maribor
									Portugal
	Spain (a.e.t.)	2
					3 June – Maribor
	Croatia	1
					Spain	0
	31 May – Ljubljana
					Portugal	1
	Portugal (a.e.t.)	5
	Italy	3

Quarter-finals

31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)	Winner Group A	1	Runner-up Group C

---

31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)	Winner Group B	3	Runner-up Group D

---

31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)	Winner Group C	2	Runner-up Group A

---

31 May 2021 (2021-05-31)	Winner Group D	4	Runner-up Group B

Semi-finals

3 June 2021 (2021-06-03) 21:00	Netherlands	1–2	Germany	MOL Aréna Sóstó, Székesfehérvár Attendance: 1,573 Referee: Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)
	Schuurs  67'	Report	Wirtz  1', 8'

---

3 June 2021 (2021-06-03) 18:00	Spain	0–1	Portugal	Ljudski vrt, Maribor Attendance: 1,910 Referee: Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)
		Report	Cuenca  80' (o.g.)

Final

Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final

6 June 2021 (2021-06-06) 21:00 CEST	Germany	1–0	Portugal	Stožice Stadium, Ljubljana Attendance: 4,883 Referee: Giorgi Kruashvili (Georgia)
	Nmecha  49'	Report

Broadcasting

Europe

Country/region	Broadcaster
	Free	Pay
Austria	ORF
Belgium	RTBF
Bulgaria	BNT
Croatia	HRT
Czech Republic	ČT
Denmark	DR
France	France Télévisions
Hungary	MTV
Republic of Ireland	Sky Sports (YouTube, non-England games only)	Sky Sports (England games only)
United Kingdom
Italy	RAI
Germany	ProSiebenSat.1
Netherlands	NOS (Netherlands games only and Final)
Russia	Match TV
Portugal	RTP
Romania	TVR
Slovenia	RTV Slovenia
Spain	Mediaset España
Sweden	SVT
Switzerland	SRG SSR
Turkey	TRT
Ukraine	UA:First

Outside Europe

Country/Region	Broadcaster
China	Super Sports
India	Sony Six
Japan	Wowow
Latin America	ESPN
Middle East	beIN Sports
North Africa	beIN Sports
United States	ESPN, TUDN

External links

• Official website

Template:UEFA European Under-21 Championship