Simply the best survive qualifying marathon

Nothing, according to England manager Stuart Pearce, is as tough as qualifying for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals. "It is the hardest qualification campaign of anything in football I can think of," Pearce said following his side's gruelling 5-4 aggregate play-off win against Wales.

Tough campaign
"The top teams go through when you are qualifying for a World Cup or a European championship, here Spain won every game and were still in a play-off. We won seven out of eight and were unbeaten and still had to go through [a tough play-off] against the Welsh. It is difficult. There will be eight good teams in Sweden because the qualification and the play-off situation is so tough to actually get there."

Holders ousted
Fifty-one nations took part in a marathon qualifying campaign that kicked off with Armenia beating Liechtenstein 1-0 on 31 May 2007 – ten days before the 2007 European U21 Championship in the Netherlands had even begun – and concluded nearly 17 months later on 15 October 2008. The Dutch were the biggest casualties as their hopes of a third straight triumph at this level were ended by Switzerland in the group stage, as uefa.com looks back at the race for a place in Sweden.

Finalists (click on the nation to see how they qualified)
Sweden (hosts), Belarus, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain

Group winners
Italy, Turkey, England, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Germany, Wales

Four best runners-up (qualified for play-offs)
Denmark, Belarus, Israel, France

Most goals scored (group stage)
24: Germany, Serbia

Most goals scored (including play-off)
26: Germany, Serbia

Fewest goals conceded (group stage)
1: England

Fewest goals conceded (including play-off)
4: Germany

Biggest win
8-0: Czech Republic v Liechtenstein, 11.09.2007
Group stage, Horni Pocernice, Czech Republic
Serbia v Hungary, 07.09.2008,
Group stage, Omladinski, Belgrade

Longest winning streak
Spain won all eight of their group games before losing 2-1 to Switzerland in the first leg of their play-off.

Longest undefeated streak
28: England*
England have not lost a match in 90 minutes since they were beaten 2-1 by France in the second leg of their play-off for the 2006 European U21 Championship on 15 November 2005. England and Italy were the only sides to come through qualifying and the play-offs unbeaten. Italy were undefeated in 14 matches, stretching back to their 2-1 loss in their opening game of the 2007 European U21 Championship, before losing 1-0 against Germany in a friendly on 18 November.
*England were defeated on penalties by the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the 2007 European U21 Championship after a 1-1 draw.

Leading scorers
7: Rouwen Hennings (Germany), Simon Church (Wales), Ched Evans (Wales)
6: Lazaros Hristodoulopoulos (Greece), Antonis Petropoulos (Greece), Gojko Kačar (Serbia), Eren Derdiyok (Switzerland)
5: Xheyahir Sukaj (Albania), Tomáš Pekhart (Czech Republic), James Milner (England), Adam Szalai (Hungary), Robert Acquafresca (Italy), Steven Fletcher (Scotland), Filip Djordjević (Serbia).

Highest attendance
31,473: England 3-0 Republic of Ireland, 02.02.2008
Group stage, St Mary's, Southampton

Oldest player*
Michael Jakobsen (Denmark)
Born: 2 January 1986
22 years, 9 months, 13 days, Serbia 1-0 Denmark
15.10.2008 play-off

Youngest player
Levan Kenia (Georgia)
Born: 18 October 1990
16 years, 7 months, 18 days, Georgia 0-1 Spain
05.06.2007 group stage

All-time statistics
Click hereto see facts and figures from all the previous championships.

* Players are eligible to play in the 2007/09 UEFA European Under-21 Championship if they were born on or after 1 January 1986.