2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship
The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (20th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under-19 national teams of Europe. Northern Ireland was selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015 as the host country for the tournament. A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1998 eligible to participate. Same as previous  editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acts as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France as the UEFA representatives, besides France who qualified automatically as hosts. Qualification. A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Northern Ireland qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place  in autumn 2016, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2017. Qualified teams. The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. "Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002)." Final draw. The final draw was held on 22 June 2017, 15:00 BST (), at the Belfast City Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Northern Ireland were assigned to position A1 in the draw. Venues. The tournament was hosted in four venues: Squads. Each national team have to submit a squad  of 18 players. Match officials. A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament. Group stage. The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 22 June 2017. The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are  applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02): All times are local, BST (). Group A. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Group B. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Knockout stage. In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary. On 2 May 2016, the UEFA Executive Committee agreed that the competition would be part of the International Football Association Board (IFAB)'s trial to allow a fourth substitute to be made during extra time. On 1 June 2017, it was also announced as part of a trial sanctioned by the  IFAB to reduce the advantage of the team shooting first in a penalty shoot-out, a different sequence of taking penalties, known as "ABBA", that mirrors the serving sequence in a tennis tiebreak would be used if a penalty shoot-out was needed (team A kicks first, team B kicks second): FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off. Winner qualifies for 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Goalscorers. Note: Goals scored in the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup play-off are included in this list, but are not counted by UEFA for statistical purposes. Qualified teams for  FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The following five teams from UEFA qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, including France which qualified as hosts.