2025 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

[Razors left peg]

Serious talent on our hands there. With him at Benfica and their record with young talent, i think he is one of the players coming through that we could see rise quickly to the top of the list. Only just turned 17.

I'll take him seriously if he moves out of that sh1t club and moves across the City to Sporting :D

He and his brother are excellent underage players but Franco has stalled a little bit at Palace in the last year or so. Was making a few benches for 1st team but that has gone quiet again. I wonder is there a bit of a case that they are both fantastically athletic in underage but as you get older that advantage goes away a bit. Franco is 20 now so its time he was seeing a bit of 1st team football somewhere, Im surprised he hasnt had a loan already

[tetsujin1979]

I'll take him seriously if he moves out of that sh1t club and moves across the City to Sporting :D

He and his brother are excellent underage players but Franco has stalled a little bit at Palace in the last year or so. Was making a few benches for 1st team but that has gone quiet again. I wonder is there a bit of a case that they are both fantastically athletic in underage but as you get older that advantage goes away a bit. Franco is 20 now so its time he was seeing a bit of 1st team football somewhere, Im surprised he hasnt had a loan alreadyHe was supposed to go on loan to Scotland in January(off the top of my head it was Motherwell, but I could be wrong) but he picked up a knock and it was cancelled.

[tetsujin1979]

Worth noting that Lithuania, who we finished ahead of in the first round with less yellow cards, didn't get out of their League B group - finishing second behind Kazakhstan - and will be in League B for the qualifying round for the 2026 tournament

Group A3 is going to be an interesting finish. Before today's fixtures, Denmark and Greece both needed three points to have a chance to go to the World Cup, but lost to Finland and France, respectively. Three teams finished the group on three points - Greece, Finland, and Denmark, who've each won and lost one game against the other two, and lost to group leaders France. On the head to head, Denmark are on a GD of -1 after beating Greece 3-1 and losing 5-2 to Finland. Greece are on zero goal difference after losing 3-1 to Denmark and then beating Finland 3-1. I think Finland will finish second with a GD of +1 after losing 3-1 to Greece and beating Denmark 5-2.

[tetsujin1979]

I think we need at least three of the following for us to qualify for the U17 World Cup as a best runner up, and it looks like A4 and A5 are already in our favour






Group
Desired result


A1
A winner between Italy and Croatia - with both teams level on six points, a draw would put Italy second in the group, and ahead of us on seven points


A2
This group is wide open, any of Germany(four points), Austria(four points) and Spain(three points) can finish in the top two.
Germany should beat bottom placed Norway in their final game to top the group, in that scenario, we need Austria to either draw with Spain, which would mean them finishing second on five points, or Spain to beat Austria by less than six goals


A3

Denmark to beat Finland by less than seven goals, they currently have a goal difference of -1, or Denmark to not beat Finland and Greece to beat France by less than five goals - but it's highly unlikely they'll win


A4
I'm not sure there's a scenario in the final game between Portugal (first on six points, GD +4) and Serbia(second on 4 points, GD +1) that would mean whoever finishes second are ahead of us


A5
Similar to A4, I'm not sure there's a scenario in the final game between Switzerland(first on six points, GD +2) and Czech Republic(second on 4 points, GD +1) that means whoever finishes second is ahead of us


A7
Israel to not win by more than six goals against Slovenia, they can't top the group after losing to England in the opener



These three scenarios have all been confirmed - three teams finished on three points in group A3, so are out of contention, and no matter what happens in the other two groups, the team in second will have either less points or an inferior goal difference to Ireland, so we have qualified for the finals in Qatar this November!

[tetsujin1979]

The postponed game between Italy and Croatia went ahead earlier, with Italy winning 2-1 thanks to a 89th minute winner from Elimoghale - https://www.uefa.com/under17/match/2043607--croatia-vs-italy/
Which means that the Ireland team are the best ranked runner up, ahead of Croatia and Switzerland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_UEFA_European_Under-17_Championship_qualification#Ranking_of_second-placed_teams
Not sure if that'll have any bearing on the draw for the world cup, but it's nice

Also, since the tournament is being held in Qatar, they've qualified automatically as hosts. And, since the next four tournaments are also being held in Qatar, they've qualified as hosts for those tournaments too. Which is nice for them.

[tetsujin1979]

Just wondering if the World Cup will affect the first qualifying round for the 2026 UEFA U19 Championships. The World Cup is on in Qatar in November and all but two of the 13 qualifying groups for the 2026 Championships - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_UEFA_European_Under-19_Championship_qualification#Qualifying_Round_2 - are also taking place in November. The 2008-born players in the squad would be expected to play in the qualifiers, but will instead be in Qatar

[tetsujin1979]

All 48 teams have been confirmed for the U17 World Cup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_FIFA_U-17_World_Cup#Teams

[Eirambler]

The way they balance the qualification places around the confederations at this level, combined with a 48 tournament, really does lead to some unlikely countries qualifying. I mean, it's possible that New Caledonia and Haiti just happen to have generational Under 17 teams this year. But, more likely, it's the qualification system that's the reason they're in.

[tetsujin1979]

There's some strong sides that have missed out - Spain, the Netherlands, Australia

[tetsujin1979]

The group stage draw for the U17 World Cup is being held this Sunday, the 25th
https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/u-17-world-cup-qatar-2025-official-emblem-revealed

the tournament’s draw which will take place in Doha on 25 May 2025 and be live-streamed on FIFA+

Ireland have been included in the fourth seeds, along with every other country who's never qualified. If you look at the teams in the same pot as us, it's actually not that bad - there are some teams in pots 2 and 3 I'd much rather face than the other teams in pot 4.
Interestingly, no group can contain two teams from the same confederation
Having a look at the teams in the other pots - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_FIFA_U-17_World_Cup#Seeding - there's a reasonable chance we could finish second or third, and qualify for the second round.

[elatedscum]

The group stage draw for the U17 World Cup is being held this Sunday, the 25th
https://inside.fifa.com/organisation/media-releases/u-17-world-cup-qatar-2025-official-emblem-revealed


Ireland have been included in the fourth seeds, along with every other country who's never qualified. If you look at the teams in the same pot as us, it's actually not that bad - there are some teams in pots 2 and 3 I'd much rather face than the other teams in pot 4.
Interestingly, no group can contain two teams from the same confederation
Having a look at the teams in the other pots - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_FIFA_U-17_World_Cup#Seeding - there's a reasonable chance we could finish second or third, and qualify for the second round.

Honestly we could win the group if we were lucky:

1st seeds:

Brazil and Argentina should be a lot better than us
Mexico, Senegal and Japan might be slight favourites against us, but wouldn't guarantee it
USA, Mali and Paraguay I'd have us as slight favourites
Qatar I'd back us to beat

2nd seeds are about half teams at about our level: South Korea, Chile, Colombia, Morrocco and half weaker teams like New Zealand, Honduras, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Uzbekistan

3rd seeds: Ivory Coast and Tunisia could trouble us - but most teams shouldn't (Tajikistan, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Canada, Haiti, South Africa, North Korea, Panama, Costa Rica)

[tetsujin1979]

Draw for the first group stage is about to start, Ireland in pot 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffIjRIcKsA
(embedding disabled for video)

[Eirambler]

First ever 48 team group draw and they left us hanging - we were the 48th and final team drawn out.

Seems like a decent draw, though I'll admit I know nothing of the quality of the Paraguay, Panama and Uzbekistan Under 17 teams.

Felt like we were getting a stickier group involving South Korea, Mexico and Ivory Coast for a long time with the way that pot was being repeatedly skipped over in the draw.

[samhaydenjr]

First ever 48 team group draw and they left us hanging - we were the 48th and final team drawn out.

Seems like a decent draw, though I'll admit I know nothing of the quality of the Paraguay, Panama and Uzbekistan Under 17 teams.

Felt like we were getting a stickier group involving South Korea, Mexico and Ivory Coast for a long time with the way that pot was being repeatedly skipped over in the draw.

Right now, the only way to gauge it would be based on how they qualified, I guess.
Uzbekistan won the Asian Cup in some style, scoring 17 goals and conceding only 3 over six games.

Panama topped a qualifying group, containing Dominican republic, Aruba and Grenada.

Paraguay came fifth in the South American championship

[Eirambler]

Panama is our first game. Again, I know nothing of their ability but would guess that's potentially the weakest of the three opponents. Win that and we should be in decent shape. Uzbekistan are a bit of a coming football nation in Asia, so may be decent enough and Paraguay I'm guessing will be OK too. Still, win the opener and we should be getting out of that group.