Contenders set for Tuscan tussle

By Paul Saffer in Tirrenia

The 4th UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament kicks off on Tuesday afternoon in Italy with eight sides hoping to succeed France as champions - and uefa.com will provide full coverage with previews, reports, interviews and analysis.

Eight contenders
Turkey, Belarus, England, Croatia, the Netherlands, Israel and 2001/02 winners Switzerland join the hosts in the Pisa region for the event, which runs until 14 May. Games are played in the towns of San Giuliano Terme, Cascina, Santa Maria a Monte, Castelfranco di Sotto, Santa Croce sull'Arno and Pontedera, which will stage Italy's opening match against Turkey at 19.00CET on Tuesday as well as the final.

Opening games
As well as the hosts' first game, against the team that ended France's reign as champions, the other tie in Group A pits England, the only side to have made all four finals, with debutants Belarus in Santa Croce sull'Arno at 16.00CET. At the same time, Israel and Switzerland kick off Group B in Cascina, with Croatia facing the Netherlands an hour later in San Giuliano Terme, a match which along with Italy against Turkey is shown live on Eurosport, among at least eight fixtures scheduled by the broadcaster.

Match schedule
Further group games take place on Thursday and Sunday, with the top two from each pool emerging into the semi-finals a week on Wednesday. As well as the final three days later, a third-place match will decide which nation joins the winner and runner-up in the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Peru from 16 September-2 October.