2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

Jalkapallon alle 19-vuotiaiden Euroopan-mestaruuskilpailut 2018 (in Finnish) U19-Europamästerskapet i fotboll 2018 (in Swedish)
Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Dates	16–29 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Portugal (1st title)
Runners-up	Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	58 (3.63 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jota Francisco Trincão (5 goals each)[1]
← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-19 Euro 2018) was the 17th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (67th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Finland hosted the final tournament, between 16 and 29 July, after being selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015.^[2] A total of eight teams competed in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 1999 eligible to participate.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the UEFA representatives, besides Poland who qualified automatically as hosts.

In the final, 2017 runners-up Portugal beat the 2016 losing finalists Italy 4–3, after extra-time, to win their first title in the under-19 era and their fourth overall.^[3] Having won the Under-17 title in 2016, this generation of players became the first to hold the European title in both youth categories.^[4] England were the defending champions, but were eliminated by France, finishing third in the group stage. They lost 0–3 to Norway in the play-off round and thus failed to qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, where they would also defend their title.