1995–96 UEFA Champions League
European football tournament
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The 1995–96 UEFA Champions League was the 41st season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the fourth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League. The tournament was won by Juventus, who beat defending champions Ajax on penalties in the final for their first European Cup since 1985, and their second overall. It was the only Champions League title that Juventus won in the 1990s, despite reaching the next two finals, and one of only three Italian wins in the final, despite there being a Serie A club in every final for seven consecutive years from 1992 to 1998.
9–23 August 1995
Competition proper:
13 September 1995 – 22 May 1996
Total: 24
Juventus (2nd title)
Ajax | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 9–23 August 1995 Competition proper: 13 September 1995 – 22 May 1996 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 16 Total: 24 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Juventus (2nd title) |
| Runners-up | Ajax |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 61 |
| Goals scored | 159 (2.61 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,870,462 (30,663 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Jari Litmanen (Ajax) 9 goals |
← 1994–95 1996–97 → | |
It was the first tournament in which three points were awarded for a win instead of two. This was also the first time that players' names appeared on the back of shirts.
Association team allocation
24 teams entered the competition – the national champions of each of the top 24 nations in the UEFA coefficient rankings, including UEFA Champions League holders, Ajax. The national champions of the associations ranked 1–7, plus the title holders, all received a bye to the group stage, while the national champions of the associations ranked 8–24 entered in the qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 25–47 were only allowed to participate in the UEFA Cup.[1]
Association ranking
For the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 1995 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1990–91 to 1994–95.[1][2][3]
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Distribution
| Round | Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from the previous round |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying round (16 teams) |
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| Group stage (16 teams) |
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| Knockout stage (8 teams) |
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Since the title holders (Ajax) qualified for the Champions League qualifying round through their domestic league and entered the group stage automatically, their spot in the qualifying round was vacated. Due to this, as well as Yugoslavia's exclusion, the following changes to the default access list were made:
- The champions of association 24 and 25 (Cyprus and Ukraine) were promoted from the UEFA Cup preliminary round to the Champions League qualifying round.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- TH: Champions League title holders
- 1st: League position of the previous season
| Group stage | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ajax (1st)TH |
 Nantes (1st) |
 Real Madrid (1st) |
 Porto (1st) |
| Juventus (1st) |
 Borussia Dortmund (1st) |
 Blackburn Rovers (1st) |
 Spartak Moscow (1st) |
| Qualifying round | |||
 Anderlecht (1st) |
 AaB (1st) |
 Legia Warsaw (1st) |
 Ferencváros (1st) |
 Beşiktaş (1st) |
 IFK Göteborg (1st) |
 Steaua București (1st) |
 Hajduk Split (1st) |
 Casino Salzburg (1st) |
 Rangers (1st) |
 Rosenborg (1st) |
 Anorthosis Famagusta (1st) |
 Panathinaikos (1st) |
 Grasshopper (1st) |
 Maccabi Tel Aviv (1st) |
 Dynamo Kyiv (1st) |
- ^ Liechtenstein (LIE): The teams affiliated with the Liechtenstein Football Association (LFV) played in the Swiss football league system, and thus were ineligible for a spot regardless of the association ranking. The only competition organised by the LFV was the Liechtenstein Football Cup – the winners of which qualified for the 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
- ^ FR Yugoslavia (YUG): While Yugoslavia's disqualification from European club competitions was lifted, their association coefficient was considered irregular and therefore their champions were not admitted. As a result, the winners of the 1994–95 First League of FR Yugoslavia, Red Star Belgrade, were instead admitted to the 1995–96 UEFA Cup.[4]
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Geneva, Switzerland).
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying round | 12 July 1995 | 9 August 1995 | 23 August 1995 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 25 August 1995 | 13 September 1995 | |
| Matchday 2 | 27 September 1995 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 18 October 1995 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 1 November 1995 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 22 November 1995 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 6 December 1995 | |||
| Knockout phase | Quarter-finals | 6 March 1996 | 20 March 1996 | |
| Semi-finals | 3 April 1996 | 17 April 1996 | ||
| Final | 22 May 1996 at Stadio Olimpico, Rome | |||
Qualifying round
Dynamo Kyiv won their tie against AaB, but, in their first group game against Panathinaikos, they were accused of a failed attempt to bribe the referee, Antonio López Nieto, to get a win. Despite an appeal, they were ejected from the competition and banned for two years, with AaB replacing them in the group stage. Dynamo's ban was eventually reduced to one season.
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grasshopper | 2–1 | Maccabi Tel Aviv | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| Rangers | 1–0 | Anorthosis Famagusta | 1–0 | 0–0 |
| Legia Warsaw | 3–1 | IFK Göteborg | 1–0 | 2–1 |
| Casino Salzburg | 0–1 | Steaua București | 0–0 | 0–1 |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 4–1 | AaB | 1–0 | 3–1 |
| Rosenborg | 4–3 | Beşiktaş | 3–0 | 1–3 |
| Anderlecht | 1–2 | Ferencváros | 0–1 | 1–1 |
| Panathinaikos | 1–1 (a) | Hajduk Split | 0–0 | 1–1 |
Group stage
Brown: Group A; 
Red: Group B; 
Orange: Group C; 
Yellow: Group D.11 teams of 16 made their debut in the UEFA Champions League group stage: AaB, Blackburn Rovers, Borussia Dortmund, Ferencváros, Grasshopper, Juventus, Legia Warsaw, Nantes, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid and Rosenborg. Panathinaikos had already played in the group stage of the 1991–92 European Cup. AaB, Ferencvaros, Grasshopper, Legia and Rosenborg were the first teams to play in group stage from Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland, Poland and Norway respectively.
Group A
Notes:
- After matchday 1 in the group, AaB replaced Dynamo Kyiv, who were banned following a failed attempt to bribe a referee.
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Bracket
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||||||
| Borussia Dortmund | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Ajax | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Ajax | 0 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Panathinaikos | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Legia Warsaw | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 22 May – Rome | |||||||||||||||||
| Panathinaikos | 0 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Ajax | 1 (2) | ||||||||||||||||
| Juventus (p) | 1 (4) | ||||||||||||||||
| Real Madrid | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Juventus | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Juventus | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Nantes | 0 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Nantes | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| Spartak Moscow | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Quarter-finals
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real Madrid | 1–2 | Juventus | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| Nantes | 4–2 | Spartak Moscow | 2–0 | 2–2 |
| Borussia Dortmund | 0–3 | Ajax | 0–2 | 0–1 |
| Legia Warsaw | 0–3 | Panathinaikos | 0–0 | 0–3 |
Semi-finals
Final
The final was played on 22 May 1996 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy.
Top goalscorers
| Rank | Name | Team | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jari Litmanen |
Ajax |
9 |
| 2 | Alessandro Del Piero |
Juventus |
6 |
| Raúl |
Real Madrid |
6 | |
| Krzysztof Warzycha |
Panathinaikos |
6 | |
| 5 | Patrick Kluivert |
Ajax |
5 |
| Yuriy Nikiforov |
Spartak Moscow |
5 | |
| Nicolas Ouédec |
Nantes |
5 | |
| Fabrizio Ravanelli |
Juventus |
5 | |
| 9 | Mike Newell |
Blackburn Rovers |
4 |
 Iván Zamorano |
Real Madrid |
4 | |
| 11 | Erik Bo Andersen |
AaB |
3 |
| Karl Petter Løken |
Rosenborg |
3 | |
| Reynald Pedros |
Nantes |
3 | |
| Sergei Yuran |
Spartak Moscow |
3 | |
 Japhet N'Doram |
Nantes |
3 |
