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
Tournament details
DatesQualifying:
9–23 August 1995
Competition proper:
13 September 1995 – 22 May 1996
TeamsCompetition proper: 16
Total: 24
Final positions
ChampionsItaly Juventus (2nd title)
Runners-upNetherlands Ajax
Tournament statistics
Matches played61
Goals scored159 (2.61 per match)
Attendance1,870,462 (30,663 per match)
Top scorer(s)Jari Litmanen (Ajax)
9 goals

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

Teams

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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)   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)

Round and draw dates

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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

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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

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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

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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   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

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Pos Team 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

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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

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Pos Team 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

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Bracket

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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

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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

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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

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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
Attendance: 70,000[2]

Top goalscorers

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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

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References

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  1. ^ UEFA Country Ranking 1995
  2. ^ "2. Finals" (PDF). UEFA Champions League Statistics Handbook 2016/17. Nyon, Switzerland: Union of European Football Associations. 2017. p. 1. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
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