2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Slovakia
Dates	27 May – 3 June
Teams	8 (finals); 47 (qualifying)
Venue(s)	4 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Italy (4th title)
Runners-up	Czech Republic
Third place	Spain
Fourth place	Slovakia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	14
Goals scored	40 (2.86 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Andrea Pirlo; (3 goals)
Best player	Andrea Pirlo
	← 1998 2002 →

The 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 12th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Slovakia from 27 May to 3 June 2000. The tournament had 47 entrants. Northern Ireland competed for the first time. For the first time a finals tournament with two groups of four teams was held, with one of those teams, Slovakia, having been chosen as the hosts.^[1] The top four teams in this competition qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics.^[2]

Italy won the competition for the fourth time, thus qualifying for the Olympic games finals, alongside Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and Spain.

Qualification

The 47 national teams were divided into nine groups (seven groups of 5 + two groups of 6). The records of the nine group runners-up were then compared. The top seven joined the nine winners in a play-off for the eight finals spots. One of the eight qualifiers was then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament^{1, 2}
Italy	00 Group 1 and play-off winner	17 November 1999	10 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996)
Turkey	01 Group 3 and play-off winner	16 November 1999	0 (debut)
England³	02 Group 5 and play-off winner	29 March 2000	6 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988)
Spain	03 Group 6 and play-off winner	16 November 1999	10 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998)
Netherlands	04 Group 6 runners-up and play-off winner	17 November 1999	3 (1988, 1992, 1998)
Slovakia (hosts)	05 Group 7 and play-off winner	17 November 1999	0 (debut)
Croatia	06 Group 8 and play-off winner	17 November 1999	0 (debut)
Czech Republic	07 Group 9 runners-up and play-off winner	17 November 1999	1 (1996)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

² Italic indicates host for that year

³ England were originally scheduled to play two legs against Yugoslavia. However, the first leg which was supposed to have taken place in Belgrade was cancelled due to political tensions.^[3] An alternative leg in Luxembourg was also cancelled due to security reasons.^[3] A second leg at Mini Estadi in Barcelona was held on 29 March 2000, which England won 3–0.^[4]

Squads

Venues

Four venues were selected for the competition.^[5]

Bratislava	Trenčín	Trnava	Bratislava
Tehelné pole	Štadión na Sihoti	Štadión Antona Malatinského	Štadión Pasienky
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Capacity: 30,087	Capacity: 22,079	Capacity: 18,500	Capacity: 8,632

2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship is located in Slovakia Bratislava Trenčín Trnava 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (Slovakia)

Match officials

Seven match officials and nine assistants were selected for the competition, including two officials representing the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Selearajen Subramaniam from Malaysia and Hamdi Al Kadri from Syria.^[6]

Country	Referee	Assistants		Fourth officials	Matches refereed
France	Stéphane Bré	Egon Bereuter (Austria)	Vincent Texier (France)	Vladimír Hriňák (Slovakia) Leslie Irvine (Northern Ireland)	Croatia 1–2 Netherlands England 6–0 Turkey
Germany	Herbert Fandel	Harald Sather (Germany)	Kostantin Piskov (Bulgaria) Egon Bereuter (Austria)	Selearajen Subramaniam (Malaysia) Stéphane Bré (France)	Czech Republic 3–1 Netherlands England 0–2 Slovakia
Malaysia	Selearajen Subramaniam	Kostantin Piskov (Bulgaria)	Hamdi Al Kadri (Syria)	Vladimír Hriňák (Slovakia)	Czech Republic 3–1 Netherlands
Northern Ireland	Leslie Irvine	John McElhinney (Scotland) Egon Bereuter (Austria)	Mikhail Semionov (Russia) Hamdi Al Kadri (Syria)	Valentin Ivanov (Russia) Selearajen Subramaniam (Malaysia)	Spain 1–1 Czech Republic Spain 1–0 Slovakia
Russia	Valentin Ivanov	Mikhail Semionov (Russia) Kostantin Piskov (Bulgaria)	Maciej Wierzbowski (Poland) Mikhail Semionov (Russia)	Karl-Erik Nilsson (Sweden) Selearajen Subramaniam (Malaysia)	Spain 0–0 Croatia Turkey 1–3 Italy
Sweden	Karl-Erik Nilsson	Maciej Wierzbowski (Poland)	Hamdi Al Kadri (Syria) Ferenc Székely (Hungary) Kostantin Piskov (Bulgaria)	Leslie Irvine (Northern Ireland) Dieter Schoch (Switzerland)	Czech Republic 4–3 Croatia Slovakia 2–1 Turkey Czech Republic 1–2 Italy
Switzerland	Dieter Schoch	Ferenc Székely (Hungary)	John McElhinney (Scotland)	Vladimír Hriňák (Slovakia) Herbert Fandel (Germany)	Netherlands 0–1 Spain Italy 1–1 Slovakia