1995–96 UEFA Champions League

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 their 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.

1995–96 UEFA Champions League
Tournament details
Dates9–23 August 1995 (qualifying)
13 September 1995 – 22 May 1996 (competition proper)
Teams16 (group stage)
24 (total)
Final positions
Champions Juventus (2nd title)
Runners-up Ajax
Tournament statistics
Matches played61
Goals scored159 (2.61 per match)
Attendance1,870,462 (30,663 per match)
Top scorer(s) Jari Litmanen
(9 goals)

It was the first tournament in which three points were awarded for a win instead of two.

Teams

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 UEFA Cup.[1]

Group stage
AjaxTH (1st) Nantes (1st) Real Madrid (1st) Porto (1st)
Juventus (1st) Borussia Dortmund (1st) Blackburn Rovers (1st) Spartak Moscow (1st)
Qualifying round
Anderlecht (1st) Aalborg BK (1st) Legia Warsaw (1st) Ferencváros (1st)
Beşiktaş (1st) Göteborg (1st) Steaua București (1st) Hajduk Split (1st)
Casino Salzburg (1st) Rangers (1st) Rosenborg (1st) Anorthosis (1st)
Panathinaikos (1st) Grasshopper (1st) Maccabi Tel Aviv (1st) Dynamo Kyiv (1st)

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
Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League qualifying round

Dynamo Kyiv won their tie against Aalborg BK, 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 Aalborg BK replacing them in the group stage. Dynamo's ban was eventually reduced to one season.

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Grasshopper 2–1 Maccabi Tel Aviv 1–1 1–0
Rangers 1–0 Anorthosis 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 Aalborg BK 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
Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League group stage
Location of teams of the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League 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: Aalborg BK, 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.

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification PAN NAN POR AAB
1 Panathinaikos 6 3 2 1 7 3 +4 11 Advance to knockout stage — 3–1 0–0 2–0
2 Nantes 6 2 3 1 8 6 +2 9 0–0 — 0–0 3–1
3 Porto 6 1 4 1 6 5 +1 7 0–1 2–2 — 2–0
4 Aalborg BK 6 1 1 4 5 12 −7 4 2–2 0–2 2–1 —
Source: UEFA

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification SPA LW ROS BR
1 Spartak Moscow 6 6 0 0 15 4 +11 18 Advance to knockout stage — 2–1 4–1 3–0
2 Legia Warsaw 6 2 1 3 5 8 −3 7 0–1 — 3–1 1–0
3 Rosenborg 6 2 0 4 11 16 −5 6 2–4 4–0 — 2–1
4 Blackburn Rovers 6 1 1 4 5 8 −3 4 0–1 0–0 4–1 —
Source: UEFA

Group C
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification JUV DOR STE RAN
1 Juventus 6 4 1 1 15 4 +11 13 Advance to knockout stage — 1–2 3–0 4–1
2 Borussia Dortmund 6 2 3 1 8 8 0 9 1–3 — 1–0 2–2
3 Steaua București 6 1 3 2 2 5 −3 6 0–0 0–0 — 1–0
4 Rangers 6 0 3 3 6 14 −8 3 0–4 2–2 1–1 —
Source: UEFA

Group D
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification AJA RM FER GRA
1 Ajax 6 5 1 0 15 1 +14 16 Advance to knockout stage — 1–0 4–0 3–0
2 Real Madrid 6 3 1 2 11 5 +6 10 0–2 — 6–1 2–0
3 Ferencváros 6 1 2 3 9 19 −10 5 1–5 1–1 — 3–3
4 Grasshopper 6 0 2 4 3 13 −10 2 0–0 0–2 0–3 —
Source: UEFA

Knockout stage
Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League 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
  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. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Borussia Dortmund 0–3 Ajax 0–2 0–1
Legia Warsaw 0–3 Panathinaikos 0–0 0–3
Real Madrid 1–2 Juventus 1–0 0–2
Nantes 4–2 Spartak Moscow 2–0 2–2

Semi-finals
Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Ajax 3–1 Panathinaikos 0–1 3–0
Juventus 4–3 Nantes 2–0 2–3

Final
Main article: 1996 UEFA Champions League Final
Ajax 1–1 (a.e.t.) Juventus
Litmanen  41' Report Ravanelli  12'
Penalties
Davids
Litmanen
Scholten
Silooy 		2–4 Ferrara
Pessotto
Padovano
Jugović
Attendance: 67,000

Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) are as follows:

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 Aalborg BK 3
Karl Petter Løken Rosenborg 3
Reynald Pedros Nantes 3
Sergei Yuran Spartak Moscow 3
Japhet N'Doram Nantes 3
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See also

References
  1. UEFA Country Ranking 1995
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