This year’s UEFA Men’s European Under-19 Championship is set to get under way just under a month from now – in Northern Ireland.
The eight-team tournament promises to showcase some of the brightest emerging talents in European football.
Joining Northern Ireland, who qualified as hosts, are seven teams from right across the continent of Europe, including holders Italy, who will face Norway in the first match of U19 Euro 2024. Ukraine, Denmark, Spain, France and Turkiye are the other participants.
Italy, who won the U17 Euros earlier this month by defeating Portugal in the final, are among the favourites to lift the U19 trophy this year.
In the elite qualifying round, staged in March, they defeated Scotland, Czechia and Georgia to book their place at the finals. Their top scorer was Simone Pafundi, who plays for Swiss Super League club Lausanne. He grabbed five goals across two sets of qualifiers.
Spain have won the tournament in its various guises 11 times - they jointly hold the record for most overall wins along with England - and they are highly fancied this time around, too. They topped their elite round group after beating Kosovo and Austria and drawing with Slovenia.
Northern Ireland, managed by former Northern Ireland international defender Gareth McAuley, are hoping home advantage will give them a huge boost as they take on Italy, Norway and Ukraine in Group A. They drew twice with Slovakia in warm-up matches earlier this month.
Norway are being tipped by many to leave their mark on the tournament. They were the only team to enjoy a 100% record across the qualifying and elite rounds (six games).
Norwegian striker Sindre Walle Egeli notched seven goals as they defeated Gibraltar, Latvia, Hungary, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Israel. Egeli is on the books of Danish Superliga side FC Nordsjælland.
Matvii Ponomarenko is the dangerman for Ukraine, who won five out of six of their qualifiers. Ponomarenko, who plays his club football with Dynamo Kyiv, scored six in the two rounds.
Great things are expected of Denmark. They defeated fellow finalists France in the qualifying round and Portugal in the elite round. They won five out of six games across those qualifiers, and also drew one.
Group B features the Danes along with Spain, France and Turkiye.
The France squad features several of the players who won the U17 Euros in 2022. They defeated Belgium and Netherlands at the elite stage in the latest U19 competition but lost to Lithuania.
Turkiye had a strong qualification campaign. In the qualifying round they saw off Lithuania, Belarus and Greece before getting the better of Romania and Croatia at the next stage. Their only defeat came against Germany’s U19s.
The Irish Football Association is hosting U19 Euro 2024 along with UEFA. The tournament will run from 15 to 28 July.
Group stage games in the eight-team tournament are scheduled to be played at Seaview Stadium in Belfast and Larne’s Inver Park, while the semi-finals and final will be played at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in Belfast.
The match schedule is as follows:
Monday 15 July
Group A
Italy v Norway (Seaview, 3.30pm kick-off)
Northern Ireland v Ukraine (Inver Park, 7pm)
Tuesday 16 July
Group B
Denmark v Spain (Inver Park, 3.30pm)
France v Turkiye (Seaview, 7pm)
Thursday 18 July
Group A
Norway v Ukraine (Seaview, 3.30pm)
Northern Ireland v Italy (Inver Park, 7pm)
Friday 19 July
Group B
Denmark v France (Inver Park, 3.30pm)
Turkiye v Spain (Seaview, 7pm)
Sunday 21 July
Group A
Norway v Northern Ireland (Seaview, 7pm)
Ukraine v Italy (Inver Park, 7pm)
Monday 22 July
Group B
Turkiye v Denmark (Seaview, 7pm)
Spain v France (Inver Park, 7pm)
Thursday 25 July
Semi-finals
National Football Stadium at Windsor Park
Semi-final 1 - winner of Group A v Group B runner-up (2pm)
Semi-final 2 - winner of Group B v Group A runner-up (7pm)
Five of the teams competing at this summer’s tournament will go on to represent Europe at the 2025 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Chile (four semi-finalists plus the winner of a play-off game between the teams finishing fifth and sixth overall).
And that play-off game is also scheduled to be played on Thursday 25 July. It is due to be staged at Seaview, with a 4.30pm start.
Sunday 28 July
Final
The winners of the semi-finals will meet at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park (7pm).
To buy tickets to U19 Euros matches go to irishfa.com/u19euro or click the link below.
