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2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship U21-Europamästerskapet för herrar 2009
Tournament details
Host country	Sweden
Dates	15–29 June
Teams	8 (finals) 51 (qualifying)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Germany (1st title)
Runners-up	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	38 (2.53 per match)
Attendance	163,090 (10,873 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Marcus Berg (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Marcus Berg
← 2007 2011 →

The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 competition, which allowed the change to odd-numbered years. Sweden hosted the final tournament in June 2009; therefore, their under-21 team qualified automatically. Players born on or after 1 January 1986 were eligible to play in this competition.

Qualification

The qualifying draw split the nations onto 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams. The seeding pots are formed on the basis of former performance in the tournament. Ten group winners along with four best-ranked runners-up advanced to the play-offs. Seven winners of the play-off pairs qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

•  Sweden as host nation
•  Belarus
•  England
•  Finland
•  Germany
•  Italy
•  Spain
•  Serbia

The finals' tournament draw took place on 3 December 2008 at the Svenska Mässan exhibition centre, Gothenburg. Prior to the final draw, Sweden had been seeded first in Group A as hosts of the tournament, while Spain were seeded first in Group B.

Final draw

Pot A

•  Sweden assigned to A1
•  Spain assigned to B1

Pot B

•  England
•  Italy

Pot C

•  Serbia
•  Finland
•  Germany
•  Belarus

The first pot contained the top seeds, these would have been host nation Sweden and the reigning champions, The Netherlands. However, The Netherlands did not qualify meaning that the team with the best qualifying record, Spain, took their place. Sweden and Spain were then automatically assigned to A1 and B1 respectively. The second pot contained the teams with the next two best records in qualifying: these were England and Italy. England were drawn into position B3 and Italy into A3. The final pot contained the other four qualified teams: Serbia, Finland, Germany and Belarus. Belarus were drawn first into position A2, Germany went into B2, Serbia into A4 and Finland into B4.

Venues

The following venues were chosen to hold the final tournament matches:

Sponsorship issues

Following the refusal of the Swedish hamburger chain Max to close their restaurant at Borås Arena during the tournament (as they are not an official UEFA sponsor), UEFA disqualified Borås Arena from hosting games during the tournament. There is a contract between UEFA and the city and between UEFA and its sponsors saying that the UEFA sponsors shall have monopoly around the arena. A city cannot force Max to close down even if it happened to sign a contract with someone saying so, as Max have a tenancy agreement with the city. The first news on the issue was published on 1 April 2008, making many believe it was an April fools joke.

On 2 September 2008, the Swedish Football Association nominated Örjans Vall in Halmstad as a replacement venue for Borås Arena, and they officially became the fourth host city a few days later. They were awarded the three group stage games that were to be hosted by Borås Arena, while the second semi-final was moved from Borås to Helsingborg and Olympia.

Swedbank Stadion was referred to as Malmö New Stadium during the tournament, as Swedbank – which owned the naming rights to the stadium at the time – were not official UEFA sponsors.

Squads

Matches

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).

Group stage

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Italy	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
Sweden	3	2	0	1	9	4	+5	6
Serbia	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
Belarus	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1

Sweden	5–1	Belarus
Martynovich 34' (o.g.) Berg 38', 44', 81' Svensson 89'	Report	Kislyak 33'

Italy	0–0	Serbia
	Report

Sweden	1–2	Italy
Toivonen 89'	Report	Balotelli 23' Acquafresca 53'

Belarus	0–0	Serbia
	Report

Serbia	1–3	Sweden
Kačar 27'	Report	Berg 7', 15' (pen.) Toivonen 29'

Belarus	1–2	Italy
Kislyak 45'	Report	Acquafresca 45+3' (pen.), 75'

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
Germany	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2	5
Spain	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
Finland	3	0	0	3	1	6	−5	0

England	2–1	Finland
Cattermole 15' Richards 53'	Report	Sparv 33' (pen.)

Spain	0–0	Germany
	Report

Germany	2–0	Finland
Höwedes 59' Dejagah 61'	Report

Spain	0–2	England
	Report	Campbell 67' Milner 73'

Finland	0–2	Spain
	Report	Torrejón 29' León 55'

Germany	1–1	England
Castro 5'	Report	Rodwell 30'

Knockout stage

	Semi-finals				Final
	26 June – Helsingborg
	Italy	0
					29 June – Malmö
	Germany	1
					Germany	4
	26 June – Gothenburg
					England	0
	England (p)	3 (5)
	Sweden	3 (4)

Semi-finals

England	3–3 (a.e.t.)	Sweden
Cranie 1' Onuoha 27' Bjärsmyr 38' (o.g.)	Report	Berg 68', 81' Toivonen 75'
Penalties
Milner Hart Cattermole Johnson Walcott Gibbs	5–4	Berg Elm Bjärsmyr Lustig R. Bengtsson Molins

Italy	0–1	Germany
	Report	Beck 48'

Final

Germany	4–0	England
Castro 23' Özil 48' Wagner 79', 84'	Report

Germany

England

GK 1 Manuel Neuer RB 2 Andreas Beck CB 4 Benedikt Höwedes CB 5 Jérôme Boateng LB 3 Sebastian Boenisch  65' DM 15 Mats Hummels  83' RM 14 Fabian Johnson  69' CM 20 Gonzalo Castro CM 8 Sami Khedira (c) LM 10 Mesut Özil  89' CF 13 Sandro Wagner  84' Substitutions: MF 16 Daniel Schwaab  69' MF 6 Dennis Aogo  83' DF 19 Marcel Schmelzer  89' Coach: Horst Hrubesch

GK 22 Scott Loach RB 2 Martin Cranie  79' CB 17 Micah Richards CB 6 Nedum Onuoha  46' LB 19 Kieran Gibbs DM 12 Fabrice Muamba  78' CM 4 Lee Cattermole CM 10 Mark Noble (c) RW 7 James Milner LW 11 Adam Johnson CF 14 Theo Walcott Substitutions: DF 18 Michael Mancienne  46' MF 15 Jack Rodwell  78' MF 8 Craig Gardner  79' Coach: Stuart Pearce

Goalscorers

Match ball

The match ball for the competition is called the Adidas Terrapass, which was unveiled at the tournament draw in Gothenburg on 3 December. The ball is bright blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag. It features 12 watermarks including one containing a map of Europe and one of the tournament logo. It is composed of 14 thermally bonded panels, which are claimed to improve the ball's accuracy and swerve.

References

1. "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007/09" (PDF). uefa.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
2. "Lineup complete for 2009 Under-21 finals". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 15 October 2008. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2008.
3. "Spanien, England och Italien blev seedade". svenskfotboll.se (in Swedish). Svenska Fotbollförbundet. 28 November 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
4. "Sweden's five cities fit for 2009". uefa.com. Union of European Football Associations. 8 February 2007. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
5. "Borås loses Under-21 European Football Championships because of Sponsorship Conflict". Sveriges Radio International. Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
6. "MAX hamburgers vs. McDonald's at football championship". The Local. The Local Europe. 19 July 2008. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
7. "Borås loses out in Uefa burger battle". The Local. The Local Europe. 21 July 2008. Archived from the original on 4 October 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
8. "Första april-skämtet som var sant" [April fools joke that was true] (in Swedish). Idrottens Affärer. 4 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
9. "U21-EM 2009: Halmstad föreslås bli värdstad". svenskfotboll.se (in Swedish). Svenska Fotbollförbundet. 2 September 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
10. "UEFA U21-EM: Klartecken för Halmstad". svenskfotboll.se (in Swedish). Svenska Fotbollförbundet. 4 September 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
11. "U21-semifinal till Helsingborg". helsingborg.se (in Swedish). Helsingborgs Stad. 5 September 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
12. Taxén, Mats (6 October 2008). "Malmö: Tre kilometer EM-stråk mitt i stan". svenskfotboll.se. Svenska Fotbollförbundet. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2008.

External links

Media related to 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship at Wikimedia Commons

• Official site (in Swedish)
• uefa.com – UEFA European U-21 Championship
• uefa.com – Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007/09

• 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
• 2009 in Swedish football
• International association football competitions hosted by Sweden
• UEFA European Under-21 Championship
• 2008–09 in European football
• June 2009 sports events in Europe
• 2009 in youth association football
• 2000s in Malmö
• 2000s in Gothenburg
• Sports competitions at Stadionområdet (Malmö)
• International sports competitions in Malmö
• Sports competitions at Olympia (Helsingborg)
• Sports competitions in Halmstad
• International sports competitions in Gothenburg
• 21st century in Skåne County