The 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, since its reclassification from an under-18 tournament in 2002, and the 62nd since the tournament was created in 1948. It was hosted in Lithuania from 20 July to 1 August 2013, in three cities. Only players born after 1 January 1994 were eligible to participate.
The qualification matches began in September 2012 and concluded in June 2013, with seven teams joining the Lithuanian hosts in the final tournament. Spain were the two-time defending champions, after defeating Greece in the final of the previous edition, but were eliminated by France in the semi-finals. In the final, France were beaten 1–0 by Serbia.
Bids
Eight national associations showed interest in hosting the final tournament, but only Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, and Slovenia reached the final bidding stage. On 4 October 2010, Lithuania were announced as the hosts in a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Minsk, Belarus.[1][2]
Qualification for the final tournament occurred in two phases: a qualifying round and an elite round. During these rounds, 51 national teams competed to determine the seven teams that would join the automatically qualified host nation, Lithuania.[7]
The qualifying round was played between 26 September and 26 November 2012, following a draw that took place on 29 November 2011 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. According to the UEFA under-19 national team coefficient ranking,[8] the top three teams – Spain, Serbia and Turkey – were given a bye to the elite round, whereas the remaining 48 teams were divided into two pots and drawn into 12 groups of four teams. Each group included two teams from both pots and was contested as a round-robin tournament, hosted in the country of one of the teams. The group winners and runners-up, along with the best third-placed team, qualified for the next round.[9]
The elite round was played between 22 May and 11 June 2012 and was contested by the 25 teams advancing from the qualifying round plus the three teams which received byes. The draw took place on 5 December 2012 at the UEFA headquarters and allocated the 28 teams – previously arranged into four seeding pots according to their qualifying round coefficient (teams with bye were automatically seeded in the first pot)[10] – into seven groups of four. Each group was contested similarly to the qualifying round, with the seven group winners securing qualification for the final tournament.[11]
Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament:[12]
Country
Qualified as
Previous appearances in final tournament1 only U-19 era (since 2002)
2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship teams and final classification
The draw for the group stage was held on 14 June 2013 in Kaunas, at the Town Hall, and was conducted by the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee chairman, Jim Boyce, who was assisted by final tournament ambassadors Vaida Česnauskienė and Marius Stankevičius.[15] The eight finalists were drawn into two groups of four teams and played matches against each other in a round-robin system. The top two teams from each group advanced to the semi-finals.[12]
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:[16]
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
If two teams are still tied after criteria 1–3 have been applied, the criteria are reapplied on those teams. If the tie is not broken, criteria 5–8 are applied;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);
Drawing of lots.
If two teams are tied after having met in the last round of the group stage, their final ranking is determined instead by a penalty shoot-out. This method is only valid when determining which team qualifies for the next round or for another competition.[16]
Serbia (1st title)
France
Gratas Sirgėdas
Anass Achahbar
Alexandre Guedes (3 goals)
