1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Campionatul European de Fotbal sub 21 UEFA 1998
Tournament details
Host country	Romania
Dates	23–31 May
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (2nd title)
Runners-up	Greece
Third place	Norway
Fourth place	Netherlands
Tournament statistics
Matches played	12
Goals scored	22 (1.83 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Steffen Iversen ; Nikos Liberopoulos (3 goals)
Best player(s)	Francesc Arnau
	← 1996 2000 →

The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1996–98), had 46 entrants. Before the quarter-finals stage, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four matches in total.

The exclusion (for political reasons) of the team from Serbia and Montenegro, then known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended. Bosnia and Herzegovina was another former state of Yugoslavia who competed, for the first time. Spain won the competition for the second time.

The 46 national teams were divided into nine groups (eight groups of 5 + one group of 6). The records of the nine group winners were compared, and the eighth and ninth ranked teams played-off against each other for the eight quarter finals spot. One of the eight quarter-finalist were then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.

Qualification

The qualifying stage for the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship saw Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain and Sweden win their respective groups. Greece and England finished first in their group but were the two worst first placed group winners. Greece defeated England in a playoff to qualify for the tournament.

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Previous appearances in tournament¹ ²
Norway	Group 3 Winner	0 (Debut)
Sweden	Group 4 Winner	3 (1986, 1990, 1992)
Russia	Group 5 Winner	1 (1994)
Spain	Group 6 Winner	7 (1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996)
Netherlands	Group 7 Winner	2 (1988, 1992)
Romania	Group 8 Winner	0 (Debut)
Germany	Group 9 Winner	2 (1992, 1996)
Greece	Playoff Winner	1 (1988, 1994)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

Venues

The final tournament was held in Bucharest, the hosts being only three arenas.

Bucharest Cotroceni Lia Manoliu Steaua class=notpageimage\| Location of grounds in Bucharest.	Bucharest (Vatra Luminoasă)	Bucharest (Ghencea)
	Stadionul Lia Manoliu	Stadionul Steaua
	Capacity: 60,120	Capacity: 28,365

	Bucharest (Cotroceni)
	Stadionul Cotroceni
	Capacity: 14,542

Match officials

Country	Referee
FR Yugoslavia	Miroslav Radoman
Luxembourg	Alain Hamer
Senegal	Falla N'Doye
Slovakia	Ľuboš Micheľ
Turkey	Metin Tokat

Squads

Only players born on or after 1 January 1975 were eligible to play in the tournament. Each nation had to submit a squad of 20 players, two of which had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured seriously enough to prevent his taking part in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.

Results

Bracket


5th-place match (30 May)		5th–8th place (26–27 May)		Quarter-finals (23–24 May)		Semi-finals (26–27 May)		Final (31 May)



				Netherlands	2

				Romania	1

		Romania	0			Netherlands	0

		Germany (aet)	1			Greece	3

				Germany	0

				Greece	1

Germany	2							Greece	0

Sweden	1							Spain	1

				Norway	1

				Sweden	0

7th-place match (30 May)		Sweden	2			Norway	0	3rd-place match (31 May)

		Russia	0			Spain (aet)	1

Romania	1			Spain	1			Netherlands	0

Russia	2			Russia	0			Norway	2