U17 EC 2-13 May Belgium

Last week the second qualification group stage was completed. Hosts Belgium will be joined by the 7 group winners.

Germany won group 1, beating Ireland, who were unbeaten until then, 3-0. Greece and scotland made up the numbers and finshed 3rd.

Ukrain impressed by winning all matches in group 2 with Italy, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Italy finshed 2nd, Czechs 3rd.

England beat Serbia in their final group C match, after being 1-0 down. The Azeri and Bosnians made up the numbers.

Holland won all 3 matches in group D. Turkey amazingly finshed 3rd, beaten by Belarus, who finshed 2nd. Wales lost all matches.

France with 7 points topped Norway and Hungary with 4 in group E. Finland finshed bottom.

ICELAND stunned by knocking out reigning champs Russia (6-5 after being 6-0 up at HT) and Portugal. Iceland and Portugal both finshed on 5 points, Russia on 4. N-Ireland ended with 1 point.

Spain, favs, with my prediction for player of the tournament Bojan Krkic, won all matches in a group F. Swiss finished 2nd.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under17/news/kind=1/newsid=521863.html

Should be interesting, hopefully I can watch it on TV...

might go and see bojan, persude him to join chelsea..

Ballack wrote:might go and see bojan, persude him to join chelsea..

I might go see 1-2 matches too. Depending on where Holland play.

Ballack wrote:might go and see bojan, persude him to join chelsea..

You tried last summer and he turned you down

Oleguerisntthatgreat wrote:

Ballack wrote:might go and see bojan, persude him to join chelsea..

You tried last summer and he turned you down

not me personally, i have great persuading skills:P

Neighbours to meet in U17 opener

UEFA European Under-17 Championship hosts Belgium will face neighbours the Netherlands on the opening day after the draw for the final tournament was made in Brussels by former international Marc Wilmots, acting as an ambassador for this event, and UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee chairman Jim Boyce.

Final rematch

Fixtures begin on 2 May with Belgium going on to meet England and Iceland in Group B after their opener against the Netherlands. In Group A, France will take on Spain in a rematch of the 2004 final while Germany play Ukraine on Matchday 1, with the full schedule to be announced in the next few days.

World Cup aim

The top two from each group go into the semi-finals on 10 May in Tournai and Tubize, and that quartet will also qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup later this year in Korea Republic along with the winners of a fifth-place play-off between the third-ranked teams in the two pools on the same day. The final will be held in Tournai on Sunday 13 May and is among a number of games at the finals which will be broadcast live by Eurosport.

UEFA European U17 Championship draw:

Group A
France
Spain
Germany
Ukraine

Group B
Netherlands
Belgium
Iceland
England

We might reach a world youth championship for once given those groups. That's assuming Iceland's a poor squad, given their qualifying group though I suspect not.

England should qualify for the U17 WC, too many talented Arsenal youngsters in the squad not to do so. The best 5 European nations qualify. With the favourable draw this should be very do-able.

Ronse, Tournai/Doornik & Tubize ???? Hope the stadiums have some capacity want too see Holland v England.