Road to the final

The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship consists of three distinct stages: two qualifying rounds and the finals.

Qualifying round
The qualifying round, played in autumn, is made up of groups of four teams playing in one-venue mini-tournaments. The group winners and runners-up plus a certain number of the third-placed teams with the best record against the top two in their section join possible top seeds (both depending on the number of entries) in the 28-team elite round.

Elite round
In the elite round, played in spring, those 8 teams go into seven mini-tournament groups of four. The group winners join the hosts at the finals.

Final tournament
At the final tournament the contenders are split into two groups of four, the top two progressing to the semis, with the final to follow. In odd-numbered years the competition acts as a qualifier for the following year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup (ie the 2017 EURO led to the 2018 World Cup).

Further details, including the criteria for separating teams that finish level on points in a group, or after extra time in a match, can be found in the official competition regulations.