The 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2025) was the 25th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (28th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. A total of 16 teams will play in the final tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 2002 are eligible to participate.
The tournament took place from 11 to 28 June 2025 and was hosted by Slovakia, who beat Belgium and Croatia in the bidding process. This is the Slovak's second time hosting after hosting the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. It was the first 16-team tournament which was hosted in a single country. This was Slovakia's biggest football tournament they ever held.
16 teams took part for the third time since 2021. Qualification took place between March 2023 and November 2024. Georgia and Slovenia qualified on merit for the first time after previously co-hosting the 2023 and 2021 editions respectively.
England defeated Germany 3âÂÂ2 in the final after extra time in Bratislava, thereby successfully defending their 2023 title and winning their fourth title overall.
UEFA deemed the tournament a success, with records being broken. A record amount of sponsors were part of the tournament. Overall, a record 120 million people watched the tournament. However, the Slovak Football Association didn't get a profit after hosting the event. The president of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini also stated the event was a big success as he said it was a great advertisement of the country.
In July 2021, UEFA opened the bidding process. The following countries applied:
UEFA Executive Committee chose Slovakia as the host on 25 January 2023 at a meeting in Nyon. Slovakia's experience with hosting UEFA tournaments was deemed as a factor behind their successful bid. This is the Slovak's second time hosting, after 2000. Slovakia became the first country to host this tournament alone since the expansion to 16 teams. Other UEFA tournaments Slovakia have hosted are the 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, 2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship and 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.
Organisers expect 50,000 people from across Europe to attend the event.
The most tickets bought from a foreign country was from Czech Republic, followed by Finland, Germany, Romania and England. The organisers hoped for a 80% occupancy rate at the stadiums. In total, 358,393 tickets were made available. 250,492 total spectators were at the matches. SFZ marketing director, LukÃ¡à ¡ Donoval, reported that 292,331 tickets were sold, an 82.5% occupancy rate.
Slovakia's eight proposed venues during the bidding process were used for the tournament. The eight stadiums were spread across seven of the eight Slovak regions, with the exception of Banská Bystrica Region. Trnava Region was the only region to have multiple host cities, Trnava and Dunajská Streda. The average capacity of the stadiums was 12,500. Six venues used for the competition were deemed category 4, with only Nitra and Preà ¡ov's stadiums being classified as category 3.
Seven stadiums were already built before the competition was given to Slovakia, with Preà ¡ov's being the only stadium being constructed during the tournament's preparations. Ján KováÃÂik had stated the if Preà ¡ov's stadium wasn't built in time, they had back-up options.
The implementation of natural grass pitches in TrenÃÂÃÂn and à ½ilina was also done before the tournament. Koà ¡ice's stadium was also upgraded during the tournament's preparations and was completed on 30 April 2024. Koà ¡ice's upgrades include the installation of an LED screen, camera system and other accessories, plus an additional 6,719 seats were also added, bringing the final capacity to 12,555. 17 training areas were available for the championship, including one for referees.
Despite being already built and meeting requirements, concerns were brought up about the à  tadión pod Zoborom (later renamed the Nitra Stadium for the tournament) in Nitra due to lack the lack of experience the stadium had hosting big events. Mária Berdisová, director of the organizing committee proclaimed that in terms of infrastructure readiness, Bratislava was the best prepared and Nitra was the least prepared, as the latter had the most adjustments that needed to be made for the tournament.
The group pairings were announced on 20 July 2023. The pairings were as follows: Bratislava and Trnava in Group A, Dunajská Streda and Nitra in Group B, TrenÃÂÃÂn and à ½ilina in Group C and Koà ¡ice being paired with Preà ¡ov in Group D.
The neighbouring Czechs who visited the country during the tournament were astonished with the quality of the Slovak's stadiums.
The Tatran Arena in Preà ¡ov was the only venue that was completely under construction during the preparations of the championship. It was the most contentious point of the preparations as concerns were raised numerous times that the venue would not be built in time. Before Slovakia received the hosting rights, the city of Preà ¡ov had previously signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Slovak Football Association about hosting games. By May 2023, construction on the stadium had still not started, signaling more doubts about the venue's readiness. Although, the building of the venue was included in Slovakia's list of sports infrastructure of national importance a month before. The stadium finally started to be built on 27 June 2023. In October 2023, the Slovak federation stated their confidence that the stadium will be built on schedule. On 13 December 2023, the company, tasked with creating the stadium, reversed their decision to terminate their contract and continued to build the stadium. By April 2024, the situation calmed down significantly as the construction was going according to plan. In November 2024, a problem aroused when a criminal report was filed a month before surrounding the stadium and its ongoing construction. However, the problem was quickly fixed after the city and the construction company agreed on a date for the completion of the construction part of the works on the arena. In March 2025, the stadium was nearing its completion and was already handed over to the authorities in Preà ¡ov. In April 2025, the venue was finally complete. On 3 May 2025, the official opening of the stadium was done. The stadium was inaugurated with a match between the retired Tatran Preà ¡ov internationals and Slovakia internationals.
Tatran Arena in Preà ¡ov raised 500,000 Euros to host the event.
Fan zones were organised at every host city. In Trnava, the fan zone was at the station SNP near the city center. In à ½ilina, you could find the city's fan zone at the Hlinkov station. The other six fan zones, in Bratislava, Dunajská Streda, Koà ¡ice, Nitra, Preà ¡ov and TrenÃÂÃÂn, were next to the stadium.
In the qualification group stage, 52 teams were drawn into nine groups: seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 2 February 2023 in Nyon at 08:00 CET. The qualifying group stage took place from 24 March 2023 to 15 October 2024. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the three best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualified directly for the final tournament, while the remaining six runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
In the play-offs, the six teams were drawn into three ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last three qualified teams. The play-off draw took place on 17 October 2024 in Nyon. The qualifying group stage took place from 24 March 2023 to 15 October 2024, while the play-offs were held between the 15 to 19 November 2024.
Of the qualified teams, 11 were present at the previous edition. Georgia and Slovenia qualified on merit for the first time after previously co-hosting the 2023 and 2021 editions respectively. Finland had the longest absence, with their last appearance being in 2009. Hosts Slovakia came back after their last appearance in 2017. Poland returns, with the last time the Poles qualified being in 2019. Denmark qualified after missing out in 2023.
Of the absentees, Croatia couldn't make it after losing on penalties to Georgia in the play-offs, ending their three successive tournament qualification streak. Switzerland failed to qualify after making two consecutive appearances. Belgium, Israel and Norway all failed to qualify after their sporadic appearances in 2023.
According to the UEFA coefficient rankings as of February 2025, the highest ranked team to not qualify was Switzerland, ranked 11th. Excluding the hosts Slovakia, ranked 23rd, the lowest ranked team to qualify was Finland, placed 20th.
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).
The draw was held at 19:00 CET on 3 December 2024 at the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava, Slovakia. Slovak presenter, Vera Wisterová, hosted the draw. The guests were former Slovak footballers, Juraj Kucka and Vratislav Greà ¡ko, whom are both ambassadors for the tournament and assisted with the draw. Before the draw started, hosts Slovakia were pre-allocated into position A1 in Group A. The draw started with, in order, pots 1, 2, 3 and 4 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule).
The seeding was based on the UEFA men's U-21 national team coefficient rankings as of November 2024.
On 8 March 2025, the 12 refereeing teams were announced for the tournament, including a Venezuelan team selected as part of a co-operation agreement between the UEFA and CONMEBOL. Originally, an English refereeing team including referee John Brooks alongside assistants, Simon Bennett and Daniel Robatan was selected. However, due to an injury to John Brooks, they had to be withdrawn and a Lithuanian referee team replaced them.
Players born on or after 1 January 2002 are eligible to participate. Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers. If a player was injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he could be replaced by another player.
The schedule was unveiled on 16 October 2024. The detailed schedule with the qualified teams involved was confirmed shortly after the draw. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the knockout stage, which began with the quarter-finals.
All times are local, CEST ().
The singer Tina performed at the opening ceremony, accompanied by 32 dancers. A further 100 performers helped complete the opening choreography. The program was directed by dancer and choreographer Mià Âo Kereà ¡.
The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:
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In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winners if necessary.
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A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
The following suspensions were served during the tournament:
The Man of the match award was given to player who was deemed as playing the best in the game. The award was given out for every game.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
After the tournament the Under-21 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observers.