2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship

The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-17 Euro 2018) was the 11th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under-17 national teams of Europe. Lithuania, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament from 9 to 21 May 2018.

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2001 eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay as the UEFA representatives.

Spain won their fourth title by beating defending champions Germany 2–0 in the final.

Qualification
A total of 46 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Lithuania qualifying automatically, the other 45 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2017, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2018.

Qualified teams
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Final draw
The final draw was held on 6 April 2018, 10:00 EEST (UTC+3), at the Kaunas State Musical Theatre in Kaunas, Lithuania. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. There was no seeding, except that hosts Lithuania were assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues
In January 2015 Lithuanian Football Federation announced plans to host championships in Kaunas, Alytus, Marijampolė and Jonava, although Central stadium of Jonava had to improve the conditions in stadium. In early 2018 it was announced that competition would be held in three cities: Alytus, Marijampolė and Šiauliai.

Match officials
A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.


 * Referees
 * 🇧🇬 Khristiyana Guteva
 * 🇨🇿 Lucie Šulcová
 * Frida Mia Klarlund Nielsen
 * 🇲🇰 Irena Velevačkoska
 * Désirée Grundbacher
 * 🇺🇦 Kateryna Usova


 * Assistant referees
 * 🇦🇹 Sara Telek
 * 🇧🇦 Almira Spahić
 * Maja Petravić
 * 🇨🇾 Polyxeni Irodotou
 * 🇫🇷 Élodie Coppola
 * 🇰🇿 Yelena Alistratova
 * 🇱🇻 Diāna Vanaga
 * 🇸🇪 Sandra Österberg


 * Fourth officials
 * 🇱🇹 Rasa Imanalijeva
 * 🇱🇹 Jurgita Mačikunytė

Squads
Each national team submitted a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 41).

Group stage
The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 12 April 2018.

The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals.

In the group stage, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02):
 * Tiebreakers
 * 1) Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 2) Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 3) Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 4) If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
 * 5) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 6) Goals scored in all group matches;
 * 7) Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
 * 8) Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
 * 9) UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
 * 10) Drawing of lots.

All times are local, EEST (UTC+3).

Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time is played).

Semi-finals
Winners qualify for 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Losers enter the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off.

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off
Winner qualifies for 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
The following three teams from UEFA qualified for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.


 * 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers
Note: Goals scored in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup play-off are included in this list, but are not counted by UEFA for statistical purposes.


 * 9 goals


 * Shekiera Martinez


 * 6 goals


 * Eva Navarro


 * 4 goals


 * Ebony Salmon
 * Annika Huhta (including 1 in play-off)


 * 3 goals


 * Romée Leuchter
 * Kirsten van de Westeringh


 * 2 goals


 * Jess Park (including 1 in play-off)
 * Aino Vuorinen
 * Vanessa Fudalla
 * Ivana Fuso
 * Leonie Köster
 * Sophie Weidauer
 * Paula Arana


 * 1 goal


 * Annabel Blanchard
 * Paris McKenzie
 * Kaisa Juvonen
 * Jenni Kantanen (in play-off)
 * Vilma Koivisto
 * Gia Corley
 * Laura Donhauser
 * Dana Foederer
 * Chasity Grant
 * Gwyneth Hendriks
 * Nikita Tromp
 * Jonna van de Velde
 * Paulina Filipczak
 * Paulina Tomasiak
 * Aida Esteve
 * Paola Hernández


 * 1 own goal


 * Kayla Rendell (against Germany)
 * Laura Ubartaitė (against The Netherlands)

Source: UEFA.com

Team of the tournament
The UEFA technical observers selected the following 11 players for the team of the tournament (previously a squad of 18 players were selected):


 * Goalkeeper
 * Anna Koivunen


 * Defenders
 * Ana Tejada
 * Greta Stegemann
 * Nana Yang


 * Midfielders
 * Paola Hernández
 * Ivana Fuso
 * Vanessa Fudalla
 * Jess Park
 * Kirsten van de Westeringh


 * Forwards
 * Eva Navarro
 * Shekiera Martinez