2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification explained

The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition to determine the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Romania and Georgia in the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament.

Apart from Romania and Georgia, all remaining 53 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition. Players born on or after 1 January 2000 were eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of the following two rounds:

• Qualifying group stage: The 53 teams were drawn into nine groups: eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the best runner-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualified directly for the final tournament, while the remaining eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The eight teams were drawn into four ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last four qualified teams.

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying group stage, teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 14.01):^[1]

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. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Wins in all group matches;
10. Away wins in all group matches;
11. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
12. UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

To determine the best runner-up from the qualifying group stage, the results against the teams in sixth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 15.02):^[1]

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points;
8. UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying group stage draw.

Schedule

!Stage!Draw date!FIFA International Dates

Qualifying group stage	28 January 2021[2]	Matchday 1 (1–3 September 2021)
		Matchday 2 (6–7 September 2021)
		Matchday 3 (7–8 October 2021)
		Matchday 4 (11–12 October 2021)
		Matchday 5 (10–12 November 2021)
		Matchday 6 (14–16 November 2021)
		Matchday 7 (24–25 March 2022)
		Matchday 8 (28–29 March 2022)
		Matchday 9 (2–6 June 2022)
		Matchday 10 (6–14 June 2022)
Play-offs	21 June 2022[3]	1st leg (23 September 2022)
		2nd leg (27 September 2022)

Qualifying group stage

Draw

Team

Team	Team	Team

Each group contained one team from each of Pots A–F (Pots A–E for a five-team group). Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, six pairs of teams would not be drawn in the same group.^[4]

• Armenia and Azerbaijan
• Gibraltar and Spain
• Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo
• Kosovo and Serbia
• Kosovo and Russia
• Russia and Ukraine^[5]

Groups

Group A

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group A.

Group B

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group B.

Group C

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group C. On 28 February 2022, FIFA and UEFA announced that Russia was suspended from all competitions.^{[6] [7]} On 2 May 2022, UEFA announced that Russia would no longer be allowed to take part in the competition, that their previous results were nullified, and that Group C would continue with five teams.^{[8] [9]}

Group D

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group D.

Group E

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group E.

Group F

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group F.

Group G

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group G.

Group H

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group H.

Group I

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group I.

Ranking of second-placed teams

Only the results of the second-placed teams against the first, third, fourth and fifth-placed teams in their group were taken into account, while results against the sixth-placed team in six-team groups were not included. As a result, eight matches played by each second-placed team were counted for the purposes of determining the ranking. The top-ranked team qualified directly for the final tournament, while the other teams entered the play-offs.

Advanced teams

Play-offs

See main article: 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs. The draw for the play-offs was held on 21 June 2022 in Nyon, Switzerland.^[10]

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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	data-sort-type="number"	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
			4th		(2019)
			1st	Debut
			4th		(2007)
			16th		(1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019)
			14th		(2009, 2017, 2021)
			10th		(1994, 2015, 2021)
			17th		(1982, 1984)
			9th		(2006, 2007)
			11th		(1988)
			22nd		(1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)
			3rd		(1998, 2013)
			5th		(2011)
			3rd		(2006)
			9th		(2002)
			5th		(2021)
			3rd		(2007, 2013)

References

1. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship . PDF . UEFA . 1 April 2022.
2. Web site: UEFA.com. 2021-01-04. 2021-23 Under-21 qualifying draw: 28 January. 2021-01-12. UEFA.com. en.
3. Web site: UEFA.com. 2022-06-10. 2023 Under-21 EURO qualifying latest: France, Netherlands, England, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Belgium in finals. 2022-06-10. UEFA.com. en.
4. Web site: UEFA.com. 2021-01-04. 2021-23 Under-21 qualifying draw: 28 January. 2021-01-12. UEFA.com. en.
5. Web site: UEFA.com. 2014-07-17. Emergency Panel decisions Inside UEFA. 2021-01-12. UEFA.com. en.
6. News: FIFA/UEFA suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions . . 28 February 2022 . 28 February 2022.
7. Web site: UEFA.com . 2022-02-28 . FIFA/UEFA suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions Inside UEFA . 2023-02-09 . UEFA.com . en.
8. Web site: UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs. UEFA. uefa.com. 2 May 2022. 2 May 2022.
9. Web site: Uefa announces further sanctions on Russian clubs and national teams amid Ukraine invasion. BBC Sport. 2 May 2022. 2 May 2022.
10. Web site: 2023 Under-21 EURO qualifying latest: France, Netherlands, England, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Belgium in finals - Under-21 - News - UEFA.com . 2022-06-10 . www.uefa.com.