| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 16 February – 12 October |
| Teams | 30 (from 1 confederation) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  France (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  Greece |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 98 |
| Goals scored | 261 (2.66 per match) |
| Attendance | 143,886 (1,468 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Aris Karasavvidis (5 goals) |
| Best player(s) | Laurent Blanc[1] |
← 1986 1990 → | |
The 1988 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1986–88), had 30 entrants. The Republic of Ireland competed for the first time. France U-21s won the competition.
The 30 national teams were divided into eight groups (six groups of 4 + two groups of 3). The group winners played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis until the winner was decided. There was no finals tournament or third-place playoff.
![[icon]](https://akarinohon.com/text/taketori.cgi/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
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The allocation of teams into qualifying groups was based on that of UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying tournament with several changes, reflecting the absence of some nations:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Spain
|
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 | 10 | Advance to finals |
| 2 |  Romania
|
6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 6 | |
| 3 |  Austria
|
6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 6 | |
| 4 |  Albania
|
6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 | −6 | 2 |
All times are local (UTC+1)
| Romania | 1–0 | Austria |
|---|---|---|
Mihali  35' |
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: Carlo Longhi
| Austria | 1–0 | Albania |
|---|---|---|
| Kostenberger 85' |
Attendance: 2,000
Referee: Laszlo Padar
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| Country | Qualified as | Previous appearances in tournament1 |
|---|---|---|
| Spain |
Group 1 winner | 3 (1982, 1984, 1986) |
 Italy |
Group 2 winner | 5 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986) |
| France |
Group 3 winner | 3 (1982, 1984, 1986) |
 England |
Group 4 winner | 5 (1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986) |
| Greece |
Group 5 winner | 0 (Debut) |
 Czechoslovakia |
Group 6 winner | 2 (1978, 1980) |
 Scotland |
Group 7 winner | 3 (1980, 1982, 1984) |
 Netherlands |
Group 8 winner | 0 (Debut) |
See 1988 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Finals | |||||||||||||||
| Scotland
| 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| England
| 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| England
| 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| France
| 4 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||||||
| France
| 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Italy
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| France
| 0 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Greece
| 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Greece
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Czechoslovakia
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Greece
| 5 | 0 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands
| 0 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands
| 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Spain
| 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Scotland | 0–1 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Porter 83' |
Attendance: 14,200
Referee: Bo Karlsson (Sweden)
| France | 2–1 | Italy |
|---|---|---|
| Paille 81' Sauzée 90' |
Report | Maldini 51' |
Attendance: 13,462
Referee: Lajos Németh (Hungary)
| Greece | 1–1 | Czechoslovakia |
|---|---|---|
| Borbokis 49' |
Report | Němeček 65' |
Attendance: 2,846
| Spain | 0–1 | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Plomp 89' (pen.) |
Attendance: 8,000
Referee: Renzo Peduzzi (Switzerland)
| England | 1–0 | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
| White 82' |
Report |
Attendance: 11,284
Referee: Karl-Heinz Tritschler (West Germany)
| Italy | 2–2 | France |
|---|---|---|
| Rizzitelli 42' Ciocci 63' |
Report | Paille 83', 88' |
Attendance: 13,505
Referee: Helmut Kohl (Austria)
| Czechoslovakia | 2–2 | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Vakalopoulos 77' (o.g.) Litoš 84' |
Report | Karasavvidis 20' Kapouranis 86' |
Attendance: 4,200
Referee: José dos Santos (Portugal)
| Netherlands | 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| van Loen 100' Viscaal 108' |
Report | Loren 40' |
Attendance: 3,724
Referee: Einar Halle (Norway)
| France | 4–2 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Angloma 23' Cantona 49' Dogon 78' Paille 83' |
Report | Parker 40' Stewart 60' (pen.) |
Attendance: 20,000
Referee: Yusuf Namoğlu (Turkey)
| Greece | 5–0 | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| Karasavvidis 10', 41', 73', 85' Ikonomidis 13' |
Report |
Attendance: 3,216
Referee: Klaus Peschel (West Germany)
| England | 2–2 | France |
|---|---|---|
| Gascoigne 5' Silvestre 59' (o.g.) |
Report | Cantona 56', 78' |
Attendance: 5,661
Referee: Marcel Van Langenhove (Belgium)
| Netherlands | 2–0 | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Fraser 60' Witschge 88' |
Report |
Attendance: 750
Referee: Aron Schmidhuber (West Germany)
| Greece | 0–0 | France |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
Attendance: 21,038
Referee: Ion Crăciunescu (Romania)
| France | 3–0 | Greece |
|---|---|---|
| Sauzée 8', 55' Silvestre 67' |
Report |
Attendance: 22,000
Referee: Kurt Röthlisberger (Switzerland)
Marcel Litoš Paul Gascoigne Garry Parker Gary Porter Paul Stewart David White Jocelyn Angloma Jean-Luc Dogon Franck Silvestre Stefanos Borbokis Kostas Ikonomidis Giorgos Kapouranis Massimo Ciocci Paolo Maldini Ruggiero Rizzitelli Henk Fraser John van Loen Gerrit Plomp Eric Viscaal Rob Witschge Loren Pagonis Vakalopoulos (playing against Czechoslovakia) Franck Silvestre (playing against England)
