The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:
Qualifying round: Apart from Portugal and Germany, which receive byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners and the 13 runners-up advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams are drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualify for the final tournament.
The schedule of each group is as follows, with two rest days between each matchday :
In the qualifying round and elite round, teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above ;
Disciplinary points ;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
Qualifying round
Draw
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 6 December2017, 10:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following :
2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Spain and Gibraltar, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.
;Notes
Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.
Groups
The qualifying round must be played by 20 November2018. Times up to 27 October 2018 are CEST, thereafter times are CET, as listed by UEFA.
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Group 5
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Group 6
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Group 7
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Group 8
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Group 9
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Group 10
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Group 11
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Group 12
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Group 13
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Elite round
Draw
The draw for the elite round was held on 6 December 2018, 11:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Portugal and Germany, which received byes to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Teams from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine would not be drawn in the same group.
