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2007 UEFA Under-21 Championship

Europees kampioenschap voetbal onder 21 - 2007
Tournament details
Host country	Netherlands
Dates	10–23 June
Teams	8 (finals) 51 (qualifying) (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Netherlands (2nd title)
Runners-up	Serbia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	34 (2.27 per match)
Attendance	211,999 (14,133 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Maceo Rigters (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Royston Drenthe
← 2006 2009 →

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

Summary

For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition – the Netherlands, who were also the defending champions, were exempt from qualifying. The host nation was chosen on 15 December 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 seven 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 four semi-finalists of the tournament. However, as England is not an Olympic nation, their team was ineligible for the Olympics. Therefore, 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 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 even to odd-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 10 June to 17 June 2007, with Heerenveen and Arnhem each staging a semi-final on 20 June. The final took place on Saturday 23 June at the Euroborg stadium in Groningen.

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

Venues

Squads

Finals group stage

In the following tables:

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Netherlands	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7
Belgium	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
Portugal	3	1	1	1	5	2	+3	4
Israel	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Netherlands	1 – 0	Israel
Maduro 10'	Report

Portugal	0 – 0	Belgium
	Report

Israel	0 – 1	Belgium
	Report	Mirallas 82'

Netherlands	2 – 1	Portugal
Babel 33' (pen.) Rigters 75'	Report	Veloso 77'

Netherlands	2 – 2	Belgium
Rigters 13' Drenthe 37'	Report	Mirallas 9' Pocognoli 70'

Israel	0 – 4	Portugal
	Report	Fernandes 37' Vaz Tê 45' Veloso 49' Nani 50'

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Serbia	3	2	0	1	2	2	0	6
England	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5
Italy	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
Czech Republic	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1

Czech Republic	0 – 0	England
	Report

Serbia	1 – 0	Italy
Milovanović 63'	Report

Czech Republic	0 – 1	Serbia
	Report	Janković 90+3'

England	2 – 2	Italy
Nugent 24' Lita 26'	Report	Chiellini 36' Aquilani 69'

Italy	3 – 1	Czech Republic
Aquilani 4' Chiellini 29' Rossi 45+1'	Report	Papadopulos 14'

England	2 – 0	Serbia
Lita 5' Derbyshire 77'	Report

Knockout stage

	Semi-finals				Final
	20 June – Heerenveen
	Netherlands	1 (13)
					23 June – Groningen
	England	1 (12)
					Netherlands	4
	20 June – Arnhem
					Serbia	1
	Serbia	2
	Belgium	0

Semi-finals

Netherlands	1 – 1 (a.e.t.)	England
Rigters 89'	Report	Lita 39'
Penalties
Babel Drenthe Janssen Beerens Maduro De Ridder Zuiverloon Rigters Kruiswijk Waterman Beerens Drenthe Maduro Janssen De Ridder Zuiverloon	13 – 12	Young Milner Noble Hoyte Derbyshire Ferdinand Carson Rosenior Reo-Coker Taylor Young Milner Noble Hoyte Derbyshire Ferdinand

Serbia	2 – 0	Belgium
Kolarov 4' Mrđa 87'	Report

Final

Netherlands	4 – 1	Serbia
Bakkal 17' Babel 60' Rigters 67' Bruins 87'	Report	Mrđa 79'

NETHERLANDS: GK 1 Boy Waterman RB 2 Gianni Zuiverloon CB 4 Arnold Kruiswijk CB 18 Ryan Donk LB 5 Erik Pieters  89' DM 6 Hedwiges Maduro (c) RM 11 Daniël de Ridder LM 8 Royston Drenthe  9'  78' AM 10 Otman Bakkal CF 13 Maceo Rigters  69' CF 9 Ryan Babel Substitutes: MF 12 Luigi Bruins  69' FW 14 Roy Beerens  89'  78' DF 19 Calvin Jong-a-Pin  89' Coach: Foppe de Haan

SERBIA: GK 1 Damir Kahriman RB 3 Antonio Rukavina  89' CB 2 Branislav Ivanović (c)  62' CB 11 Duško Tošić  43' LB 6 Aleksandar Kolarov  28'  62' CM 7 Milan Smiljanić CM 13 Nikola Drinčić  65' CM 10 Dejan Milovanović RF 19 Dušan Basta  73' CF 9 Đorđe Rakić  73' LF 8 Boško Janković Substitutes: MF 21 Zoran Tošić  65' MF 14 Stefan Babović  73' FW 18 Dragan Mrđa  82'  73' Coach: Miroslav Đukić

2007 UEFA Euro Under-21 Championship Winners
Netherlands Second title

Awards

Best player

• Royston Drenthe

Team of the tournament

Goal scorers

4 goals

• Maceo Rigters

3 goals

• Leroy Lita

2 goals

• Alberto Aquilani
• Ryan Babel
• Giorgio Chiellini
• Kevin Mirallas
• Dragan Mrđa
• Miguel Veloso

1 goal

• Otman Bakkal
• Luigi Bruins
• Matt Derbyshire
• Royston Drenthe
• Manuel Fernandes
• Boško Janković
• Aleksandar Kolarov
• Hedwiges Maduro
• Dejan Milovanović
• Nani
• David Nugent
• Michal Papadopulos
• Sébastien Pocognoli
• Giuseppe Rossi
• Ricardo Vaz Tê

Medal table and Olympic qualifiers

• Netherlands, Serbia, Belgium and Italy qualify for the Olympic games finals.

See Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
	Netherlands (H)	5	3	2	0	10	5	+5	11	Gold Medal
	Serbia	5	3	0	2	5	6	−1	9	Silver Medal
	England	4	1	3	0	5	3	+2	6	Eliminated in semi-finals
	Belgium	4	1	2	1	3	4	−1	5
5	Portugal	3	1	1	1	5	2	+3	4	Eliminated in group stage
6	Italy	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
7	Czech Republic	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1
8	Israel	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Olympic Qualifying play-off

The 2007 European Under-21 Championship also served 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 independently at the Olympics, following the group stage a play-off between Portugal and Italy, the two third-placed teams in each group, was arranged to identify the fourth European qualifier. Italy defeated Portugal through a penalty shoot-out booking their Olympic place in Beijing.

Portugal	0 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Italy
	Report
Penalties
Moutinho Nani Fernandes Veloso Antunes	3 – 4	Pellè Montolivo Criscito Palladino

References

1. "De Sart wants Belgium's backing". David Bano & Michael Harrold. Archived from the original on September 21, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2007.
2. "Match schedule". UEFA. Archived from the original on June 4, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2007.
3. "Netherlands News". UEFA.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007.
4. "Holland U21 1-1 Eng U21". BBC Sport. 2007-06-20. Archived from the original on 29 June 2007. Retrieved June 23, 2007.
5. "Holland U21 4-1 Serbia U21". BBC Sport. 2007-06-23. Retrieved June 23, 2007.

External links

• Draw and Fixtures at uefa.com

• 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
• 2006–07 in European football
• 2007 in Dutch sport
• UEFA European Under-21 Championship
• International association football competitions hosted by the Netherlands
• Football qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympics
• June 2007 sports events in Europe
• 2007 in youth association football