1st placed teams after qualifiers Netherlands Portugal Italy Belgium Denmark France Germany Croatia 2nd placed teams Czech Republic Russia* Slovenia Serbia and Montenegro Ukraine Switzerland England Hungary * Slovakia can still be ahead of Russia, but it's unlikely. 1st placed teams play 2nd placed teams in play-offs for the finals.
Some great matchups in the draw, starting with the first one:- England vs France Serbia and Montenegro vs Croatia Ukraine vs Belgium Russia vs Denmark Czech Republic vs Germany Slovenia vs Netherlands Hungary vs Italy Switzerland vs Portugal
Not bad, we could make that. What's happening with our youth teams man. They were always shite and could never qualify for anything. Now our current u17 won a silver for euro u17 plus bronze WC u17 And u19 reached Qf WC u19 (home, but nevertheless)
Results from the 1st leg of the play-off's and the fixtures you are looking for : http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under21/FixturesResults/index.html
All results: England vs France: 1:1 Serbia and Montenegro vs Croatia:3:1 Ukraine vs Belgium:2:3 Russia vs Denmark:0:1 Czech Republic vs Germany:0:2 Slovenia vs Netherlands:0:0 Hungary vs Italy:1:1 Switzerland vs Portugal: 1:1
I haven't seen the other games but am watching the Dutch youth teams regularly these days, they're great fun to watch. You can tell they're not dealing with the pressures grown-ups are dealing with, it's great to watch uncomplicated football for a change.
More and more of the young stars on the U21 NT's are already making a mark in Europe's leading club teams playing CL, UEFA cup and some also being regulars on their A-NT. This is also why UEFA this season decided to move the U21 finals to odd years from 2007, to move the tournament away from the shadow of the big Euro and WC finals and in this way boost/upgrade the U21 Tournament.. I also know that an official U21 ranking is on it's way, just like the FIFA World ranking... According to reliable rumours the first European U21 ranking got Portugal, France, Italy and Denmark as the 4 best European U21 teams... .
Glad you feel that way. I've been watching the England U21's now on Setanta - it doesn't look too promising fro the near future, when this generation of seniors is done.
2nd leg Croatia v Serbia and Montenegro: 1-2, (agg. 2-5) Denmark v Russia: 3-1, (agg. 4-1) Germany v Czech Republic: 1-0, (agg. 3-0) Netherlands v Slovenia: 2-0, (agg. 2-0) Belgium v Ukraine: 1-3, (agg. 4-5) France v England: 2-1, (agg. 3-2) Portugal v Switzerland: 2-1, (agg. 3-2) Italy v Hungary: 1-0, (agg. 2-1) .
It doesn't? Shame that. We're all very excited about our youth teams, they're all doing amazingly well esp considering that our best under 21s are in oranje proper.
Good post, just funny rankings by Fifa. Is there any mention of Serbia in the top five? If not, what a stupid ranking... just like for the senior teams!
I think Ceres is talking about the new UEFA Under-21 ranking system which is going to be implemented ahead of qualifying for the 2007 tournament. In the past, UEFA's Under-21 qualifying system simply mirrored the full national team groups. But now that the Under-21 tournament is switching to odd years, they need their own draw and ranking system. BTW, the host nation for this edition of the tournament will be determined by the UEFA Executive Committee on Dec 14/15. The final draw will then be held in the host nation on Feb 8. http://www.uefa.com/competitions/Under21/news/Kind=1/newsId=367850.html
Oh there is some great talent in there no doubt. It's not even that our lot are bad, becuae they're not, it's just that they aren't (seemingly) up tp snuff with whats on the continent.
Quite right... --- @ marakana10 Sorry, I can only give you top 4 , so you have to wait and see when the ranking is finally made public --- No need to worry all that much because of this seasons U21 NT games. It goes up and down with he quality of the squads from time to time and you really dont need more than a few players from each of the past years U21 NT's to make one very good A-NT of the future... .