U21 daily bulletin - Saturday

The UEFA European Under-21 Championship has captured live television audience interest beyond Portugal as recent viewing figures from Italy and the Netherlands have shown.

Italy's opening draw against Denmark provided RAI 3 with its top audience figure for the day peaking at more than 4.6m viewers and a share of 18.68 per cent. The live transmission was also the third highest watched programme in Italy on that date. In the Netherlands, their match against Ukraine pulled in the largest audience of the day on the Talpa network with 1.1m viewers and a 23 per cent share, thus making it the fifth most watched programme on Dutch national television on that day.

In Portugal, TVI reported 1.96m viewers watched the hosts' second match in the competition against Serbia and Montenegro, providing a market share of 56.9 per cent. For Portugal's opening match against France, 2.1m viewers tuned in with a market share of 58.5 per cent. Both figures compare favourably to the last time there was free to air television coverage in Portugal back in 2002 when the peak audience reached 900,000 with a 31.5 per cent market share.

Commercial programme: This is the first tournament in the new UEFA EUROTOP programme, and the commercial set-up for this event has ten global sponsors, supported by four local Portuguese companies, who are all running extensive promotional activities to bring the event to the fans. The ten global sponsors are adidas, Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, Continental, CTT, Ford, JVC, MasterCard, McDonald’s and Montepio, while Sical, SportZone, TMN and Galp comprise the four local partners.

Attendances: After eight matches, the total attendances in the competition number 78,505, a figure which compares favourably against the 2004 competition which was held in Germany when the total amount of spectators numbered 111,000 from 16 matches. For each game, the attendances have been as follows:
SCG v GER: 3,245 (Barcelos)
POR v FRA: 26,875 (Braga)
UKR v NED: 4,250 (Agueda)
ITA v DEN: 11,250 (Aveiro)
FRA v GER: 8,023 (Guimaraes)
POR v SCG: 9,968 (Bercelos)
DEN v NED: 8,021 (Aveiro)
ITA v UKR: 6,873 (Agueda)

Competition permutations: According to the 2004-06 UEFA European Under-21 Championship regulations, if several teams are equal on points on completion of all the matches in their group, the following criteria will be used to determine the rankings in the order given:
a) Number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question
b) Goal difference in the matches among the teams in question
c) Number of goals scored in the matches among the teams in question (if more than two teams finish equal on points)
d) Goal difference in all the group matches
e) Number of goals scored in all the group matches
f) Coefficient in the play-offs (points obtained divided by the number of matches played)
g) Goal difference from the play-offs
h) Average number of goals scored per play-off
i) Fair play ranking (final tournament)
j) Drawing of lots

Group A: All teams can still qualify but only France or Serbia and Montenegro can win the group

FRANCE: France, on six points, will qualify in first place with either a win or draw against Serbia and Montenegro. If they lose, they will still qualify in second place if Portugal beat Germany. If they lose, and Germany beat Portugal, three teams will have six points and head to head records will come into play.

State of play for teams who could finish on six points, excluding results against Portugal
FRA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +3, Goals scored: 3
GER: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: -2, Goals scored: 1
SCG: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 0

GERMANY: Germany, on three points, will qualify in second place if they win or draw against Portugal, and Serbia and Montenegro are defeated by France. They could finish in any of the top three positions if both they and Serbia and Montenegro win as that would leave three teams on six points and head to head records would come into play. If both matches end in a draw, Germany will stay in second place on a head to head basis by virtue of their 1-0 win against Serbia and Montenegro.

State of play for teams who could finish on six points, excluding results against Portugal
FRA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +3, Goals scored: 3
GER: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: -2, Goals scored: 1
SCG: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 0

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO: Serbia and Montenegro, on three points, will qualify in first place on the head to head rule if they beat France and Germany fail to do the same against Portugal. A draw and a Germany defeat would mean a second-place finish. They could finish in any of the top three positions if both they and Germany win as that would leave three teams on six points and head to head records would come into play. If both matches end in a draw, Serbia and Montenegro will remain in third place because of their 1-0 defeat by Germany.

State of play for teams who could finish on six points, excluding results against Portugal
FRA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +3, Goals scored: 3
GER: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: -2, Goals scored: 1
SCG: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 0

PORTUGAL: Portugal, on zero points, have to beat Germany by three goals and hope France defeat Serbia and Montenegro to finish second and qualify for the knockout phase. In that scenario, France would qualify as group winners.

State of play for teams who could finish on three points, excluding results against France
SCG: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +1, Goals scored: 2
GER: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +1, Goals scored: 1
POR: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -2, Goals scored: 0

Group B: All teams can still qualify and any of the four teams can take group honours

ITALY: Italy will win the group if they win their final game or if both the matches end in draws. In addition, should they draw and Ukraine defeat Denmark, the Italians will finish second. However, should Italy draw and Denmark beat the Ukrainians, then goal difference in all group matches will be used as the first criterion to determine the final ranking followed by the number of goals scored in all the group matches. If these criteria cannot separate the teams, Denmark will win the group on the basis of their play-off coefficient (Denmark: 2, Italy: 1.5). Should Italy lose and Ukraine draw, three teams will finish on four points and head to head records will come into play. In addition, if Italy lose 2-1 and the other match finishes in a 3-3 draw, the Netherlands will win the group, with Italy finishing second based on their superior play-off coefficient (Italy: 1.5, Ukraine: 1).

State of play for teams who could finish on four points, excluding results against Denmark

ITA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +1, Goals scored: 1
UKR: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: 0, Goals scored: 2
NED: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 1

UKRAINE: Ukraine will win the group if they defeat Denmark and Italy lose. Should Italy lose and Ukraine draw, three teams will finish on four points and head to head records will come into play.

State of play for teams who could finish on four points, excluding results against Denmark

ITA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +1, Goals scored: 1
UKR: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: 0, Goals scored: 2
NED: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 1

DENMARK: Denmark will win the group if they defeat Ukraine and Italy lose. If Denmark win and Italy draw, then goal difference in all group matches will be used as the first criterion to determine the final ranking followed by the number of goals scored in all the group matches. If these criteria cannot separate the teams, Denmark will win the group on the basis of their play-off coefficient (Denmark: 2, Italy: 1.5).

NETHERLANDS: The Netherlands have two chances of qualifying. Victory against Italy paired with a draw in the other match involving Ukraine and Denmark will see three teams finishing on four points and head to head records will come into play. In addition, should the Dutch win and the other match end in a victory, the Netherlands will advance.

State of play for teams who could finish on four points, excluding results against Denmark

ITA: Pld: 1, Pts: 3, Goal difference: +1, Goals scored: 1
UKR: Pld: 2, Pts: 3, Goal difference: 0, Goals scored: 2
NED: Pld: 1, Pts: 0, Goal difference: -1, Goals scored: 1

Man of the Match: The following players have picked up Carlsberg Man of the Match awards:
SCG v GER: Lukas Sinkiewicz (Germany)
POR v FRA: Jimmy Briand (France)
UKR v NED: Artem Milevskiy (Ukraine)
ITA v DEN: Rasmus Würtz (Denmark)
FRA v GER: Rio Antonio Mavuba (France)
POR v SCG: Milan Stepanov (Serbia and Montenegro)
DEN v NED: Thomas Kahlenberg (Denmark)
ITA v UKR: Giorgio Chiellini (Italy)

Bookings list: The booked players, listed below, are all one caution from a suspension, although yellow cards will be wiped out after the group stage:

DEN: Leon Andreasen, Thomas Kahlenberg, Morten Rasmusen and Rasmus Würtz
FRA: Jimmy Briand, Lassana Diarra, Jacques Faty and Jérémy Toulalan
GER: Gonzalo Castro and Marvin Matip
ITA: Giorgio Chiellini, Raffaele Palladino, Gianpaolo Pazzini and Paolo Sammarco
NED: Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Paul Verhaegh
POR: João Moutinho, Filipe Oliveira, Ricardo Quaresma and Rolando
SCG: Boško Janković, Nenad Milijaš, Milan Stepanov and Vladimir Stojković
UKR: Yevgen Cheberyachko, Ruslan Fomin, Olexandr Romanchuk and Grigoriy Yarmash

Suspended: Portugal midfielder Semedo will miss the hosts' final group fixture after being sent off in the loss to Serbia and Montenegro while Marco Donadel will miss out on Italy's last match in the group stage having picked up two yellow cards in two games.

Top scorer: Denmark's Thomas Kahlenberg tops the scoring list with two goals from two games. Fifteen players have scored one goal, while there have also been two own goals - both from Portugal.

Fair Play: The Netherlands lead the Fair Play ranking after four days of matches in the competition, closely followed by Denmark and Germany. The full ranking is as follows:

NED: 8.428 points (two matches played)
DEN: 8.142 points (two matches played)
GER: 8.125 points (two matches played)
FRA: 8.000 points (two matches played)
UKR: 7.875 points (two matches played)
SCG: 7.285 points (two matches played)
ITA: 7.285 points (two matches played)
POR: 7.125 points (two matches played)

Tournament schedule: The top two teams in each group will then advance to the knockout phase of the competition comprising two semi-finals and the final. The winners of Group A will face the runners-up from Group B on Thursday 1 June at 17.15 local time in Braga, while the winners of Group B will face the runners-up from Group A on the same day at 19.45 in Aveiro. Porto will stage the final of the eight-team tournament at the Estádio do Bessa Século XXI on Sunday 4 June.

uefa.com coverage: uefa.com, fully developed in-house in seven languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian), is offering extensive content from UEFA's flagship youth tournament - from exclusive interviews and news to practical information for supporters, scouts and the international media. For this competition, uefa.com is using its popular Match Centre application to provide up-to-date information from the games as they happen, with goal updates, statistics, reports, reviews and news. There will also be live audio from all 15 finals matches.

Quicklinks: A media information guide is being updated daily on uefa.com, providing times of press conferences and training. It can be accessed by clicking here. The full addresses of the tournament base in Porto and each of the teams' hotels can be found here. Information for scouts is available here.