1978 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The 1978 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1976–78) had 24 entrants. Yugoslavia U-21s won the competition.

The 24 national teams were divided into eight groups. The group winners played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis until the winner was decided. There was no finals tournament or 3rd-place playoff.

Draw
The allocation of teams into qualifying groups was based on that of 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification with several changes, reflecting the absence of some nations:
 * Group 1 did not include Portugal (moved to Group 2) and Cyprus, but included Sweden (moved from Group 6)
 * Group 2 did not include England and Finland (both moved to Group 5), but included Portugal (moved from Group 1)
 * Group 3 did not include Malta
 * Group 4 did not include Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Iceland, but included France and Bulgaria (both moved from Group 5)
 * Group 5 composed of England and Finland (both moved from Group 2) and Norway (moved from Group 6)
 * Group 6 (based on World Cup qualifying Group 7) did not include Wales, but included Switzerland (moved from World Cup Group 6)
 * Groups 7 and 8 included the same teams as World Cup qualifying Groups 8 and 9 respectively

Squads
See 1978 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads

FINAL
GDR-YUG 0:1 Halle, 17.5.1978., Scorer: Halilhodžić ('53). GDR: Heyne, Brauer, Hause (Vingel), Uhlig, Roth, Weber, Terletzki, Eigendorf (Mischinger), Kuhn, Kotte, Riediger. YUG: Stojanović, Vujkov, Hrstić, Zajec, Stojković, Bogdan, Krmpotić, Klinčarski, Halilhodžić, Bošnjak (R.Savić), Desnica (Slišković). YUG-GDR 4:4 Mostar, 31.5.1978., Scorers: Halilhodžić ('9, '37), Desnica ('16), Bogdan ('50) - Kotte ('2), Kuhn ('11, '31), Riediger ('15). YUG: Stojanović, Krmpotić, M.Obradović, Zajec, Stojković, Bogdan, Bošnjak (Starčević), Savić, Halilhodžić, Klinčarski (Verlašević), Desnica. GDR: Heyne, Hause, Brauer (Vingel), Uhlig, Roth, Schnuphase, Weber, Eigendorf, Riediger, Kotte, Kuhn.