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 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

Stadio Olimpico in Rome held the final.
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.

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]

Association ranking for 1995–96 UEFA Champions League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 1  Italy 63.884 1 2  France 45.283 3  Germany 40.307 4  Spain 39.098 5  England 38.333 6  Portugal 34.000 7  Russia 31.300 8  Belgium 30.400 9  Netherlands 28.450 10  Turkey 23.749 11  Austria 21.450 12  FR Yugoslavia 21.000 0 [Note YUG] 13  Greece 20.500 1 14  Denmark 20.000 15  Sweden 18.000 16  Scotland 16.550 17  Switzerland 15.500

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 18  Poland 14.916 1 19  Romania 14.150 20  Norway 12.332 21  Israel 12.166 22  Hungary 11.916 23  Croatia 11.500 24  Cyprus 10.665 25  Ukraine 10.332 26  Georgia 9.000 0 27  Iceland 8.666 28  Latvia 8.500 29  Finland 8.416 30  Slovakia 7.999 31  Slovenia 7.666 32  Bulgaria 7.583 33  Czech Republic 5.000

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 34  Wales 5.000 0 35  Northern Ireland 4.998 36  Republic of Ireland 4.665 37  Belarus 4.000 38  Malta 3.998 39  Albania 3.333 40  Liechtenstein 3.000 [Note LIE] 41  Lithuania 2.500 42  Luxembourg 1.999 43  Faroe Islands 1.500 44  Macedonia 1.000 45  Armenia 1.000 46  Moldova 1.000 47  Estonia 0.500 48  Azerbaijan 0.000 49  San Marino 0.000

Distribution

Round	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from the previous round
Qualifying round (16 teams)	16 champions from associations 8–25 (except title holders and FR Yugoslavia)[Note YUG]
Group stage (16 teams)	Title holders 7 champions from associations 1–7	8 winners from the qualifying round
Knockout stage (8 teams)		8 group winners from the group stage 8 group runners-up from the group stage

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
AjaxTH (1st)	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)

1. ^
   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.
2. ^
   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

Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League 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

Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League group stage

Panathinaikos

Nantes

Porto

AaB

Spartak Moscow

Legia Warsaw

Rosenborg

Blackburn Rovers

Juventus

Borussia Dortmund

Steaua București

Rangers

Ajax

Real Madrid

Ferencváros

Grasshopper

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: 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

Pos	Team v t e	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	AaB[a]	6	1	1	4	5	12	−7	4			2–1	0–2	2–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. After matchday 1 in the group, AaB replaced Dynamo Kyiv, who were banned following a failed attempt to bribe a referee.

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SPM	LEG	ROS	BLA
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 v t e	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 v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AJX	RMA	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
															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

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Juventus	4–3	Nantes	2–0	2–3
Ajax	3–1	Panathinaikos	0–1	3–0

Final

Main article: 1996 UEFA Champions League final

The final was played on 22 May 1996 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy.

Ajax	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Juventus
Litmanen 41'	Report	Ravanelli 12'
Penalties
Davids Litmanen Scholten Silooy	2–4	Ferrara Pessotto Padovano Jugović

22 May 1996 (1996-05-22)

20:30 UTC+2

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Attendance: 70,000^[5]

Referee: Manuel Díaz Vega (Spain)

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

See also

• 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
• 1995–96 UEFA Cup
• 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup