2007_UEFA_European_Under-21_Football_Championship

2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship

The UEFA U-21 Championship 2007 were held from June 10, 2007, to June 23, 2007. It is the 16th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Football Championship.

For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition — the Netherlands, who are also the defending champions, were exempt from qualifying. The host nation was chosen on December 15, 2005. England, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Sweden also submitted bids. Of UEFA's 52 member countries, only the Faroe Islands did not compete in the qualification round for the tournament. That left 50 nations attempting to qualify for the 7 remaining spots at the finals.

This was the first time that the competition's final matches took place in an odd-numbered year. UEFA took this decision with the will to give more visibility to the tournament, since during even-numbered years the competition was clouded by the approaching FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship.

The tournament also served as the European qualifying tournament for the 2008 Summer Olympics, with a place for the 4 semi-finalists of the tournament. With the event of England reaching the semi-finals, a fifth-place playoff was necessary.

In this competition, a new UEFA penalty shootout record was established. The semi final between The Netherlands U21 and England U21 finished in 1-1. No less than 32 penalties had to be taken before the tie was decided. The Netherlands U21 won 13-12, and went on to win the tournament by defeating Serbia U21 4-1 in the final.

After the final some commotion arose in The Netherlands because several Dutch internationals with Surinamese roots carried the flag of Suriname with them during the ceremony of the European Champion in the Euroborg. Dutch coach Foppe de Haan expressed the actions of these players as "inappropriate".

Qualification

In order to make the switch from odd to even-numbered years, the 2007 edition was a shortened version, condensed from a two-year campaign into a one-year campaign. Therefore, a completely new qualification format was devised to eliminate the weaker nations early, and saw a decrease in the size and duration of qualification groups.

Finals Tournament

Draw

The draw for the finals took place in Arnhem on 24 November 2006, putting the eight qualifying nations into two groups. The provisional dates for the group games are June 10 to 17 June 2007, with Heerenveen and Arnhem each staging a semi-final on June 20. The final is scheduled take place on Saturday 23 June at the Euroborg stadium in Groningen.

The opening game was between Netherlands and Israel at June 10.

Venues

City	Stadium	Capacity
Arnhem	Gelredome	30,000
Heerenveen	Abe Lenstra Stadion	28,000
Groningen	Euroborg	20,000
Nijmegen	De Goffert	13,000

Squads

Finals group stage

In the following tables:

Pld = total games played
W = total games won
D = total games drawn (tied)
L = total games lost
GF = total goals scored (goals for)
GA = total goals conceded (goals against)
GD = Goal difference
Pts = total points accumulated

	Team qualified for the knockout stage.
	Team went to play-off for Olympics

Group A

Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
3	2	1	0	5	3	2	7
3	1	2	0	3	2	1	5
3	1	1	1	5	2	3	4
3	0	0	3	0	6	-6	0

Group B

Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
3	2	0	1	2	2	0	6
3	1	2	0	4	2	2	5
3	1	1	1	5	4	1	4
3	0	1	2	1	4	-3	1

Olympic Qualifying Play-Off

The 2007 European Under-21 Championship also doubled up as the European qualifying round for the 2008 Olympic football tournament. Europe's four places at the Olympic tournament were to be filled by the four semi-finalists. However, because England, one of the semi-finalists, do not compete at the Olympics, a play-off between Portugal and Italy, the two third-placed teams in each group, decided the fourth European qualifier. Italy defeated Portugal through a penalty shoot-out booking their Olympic place in Beijing.

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Final


NETHERLANDS:
GK	1	Boy Waterman
RB	2	Gianni Zuiverloon
CB	4	Arnold Kruiswijk
CB	18	Ryan Donk
LB	5	Erik Pieters
DM	6	Hedwiges Maduro (c)
CM	8	Royston Drenthe
CM	11	Daniël de Ridder
AM	10	Otman Bakkal
CF	13	Maceo Rigters
CF	9	Ryan Babel
Substitutes:
GK	16	Kenneth Vermeer
GK	23	Tim Krul
DF	3	Ron Vlaar
DF	19	Calvin Jong-a-Pin
DF	21	Frank van der Struijk
MF	12	Luigi Bruins
MF	17	Haris Medunjanin
FW	7	Julian Jenner
FW	14	Roy Beerens
FW	15	Robbert Schilder
FW	20	Tim Janssen
Coach:
Foppe de Haan


SERBIA:
GK	1	Damir Kahriman
RB	3	Antonio Rukavina
CB	2	Branislav Ivanović (c)
CB	11	Duško Tošić
LB	6	Aleksandar Kolarov
DM	7	Milan Smiljanić
DM	13	Nikola Drinčić
RM	19	Dušan Basta
CM	10	Dejan Milovanović
LM	8	Boško Janković
CF	9	Đorđe Rakić
Substitutes:
GK	23	Aleksandar Kesić
DF	4	Nemanja Rnić
DF	5	Gojko Kačar
DF	15	Predrag Pavlović
DF	20	Slobodan Rajković
DF	22	Nikola Petković
MF	14	Stefan Babović
MF	16	Đorđe Ivelja
FW	18	Dragan Mrđa
FW	21	Zoran Tošić

Coach:
Miroslav Đukić