1996–97 UEFA Champions League

The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League was the 42nd season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the fifth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League, and the last involving only clubs that were champions of their domestic leagues. Due to the Bosman ruling, restrictions on foreign players in matchday squads were lifted from this season.

1996–97 UEFA Champions League
The Olympiastadion in Munich held the final
Tournament details
DatesQualifying:
7–21 August 1996
Competition proper:
11 September 1996 – 28 May 1997
TeamsCompetition proper: 16
Total: 24
Final positions
ChampionsGermany Borussia Dortmund (1st title)
Runners-upItaly Juventus
Tournament statistics
Matches played61
Goals scored161 (2.64 per match)
Attendance2,093,228 (34,315 per match)
Top scorer(s)Milinko Pantić (Atlético Madrid)
5 goals

The tournament was won by Borussia Dortmund in a 3–1 final victory against defending champions Juventus. It was their only title in the tournament to date, and the first title for Germany since its reunification in 1990.

Teams edit

24 teams entered the competition: the national champions of each of the top 23 nations in the UEFA coefficient rankings, and UEFA Champions League holders, Juventus. 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 8–23 entered in the qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 24–48 were only allowed to participate in UEFA Cup.[1]

Group stage
  Juventus TH (2nd)   Auxerre (1st)   Borussia Dortmund (1st)   Porto (1st)
  Milan (1st)   Atlético Madrid (1st)   Ajax (1st)   Manchester United (1st)
Qualifying round
  Club Brugge (1st)   Brøndby (1st)   Slavia Prague (1st)   Ferencváros (1st)
  Panathinaikos (1st)   Rapid Wien (1st)   Rangers (1st)   Steaua București (1st)
  Alania Vladikavkaz (1st)   IFK Göteborg (1st)   Rosenborg (1st)   Widzew Łódź (1st)
  Fenerbahçe (1st)   Grasshopper (1st)   Dynamo Kyiv (1st)   Maccabi Tel Aviv (1st)

Round and draw dates edit

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 6 July 1996 7 August 1996 21 August 1996
Group stage Matchday 1 23 August 1996 11 September 1996
Matchday 2 25 September 1996
Matchday 3 16 October 1996
Matchday 4 30 October 1996
Matchday 5 20 November 1996
Matchday 6 4 December 1996
Knockout phase Quarter-finals 5 March 1997 19 March 1997
Semi-finals 9 April 1997 23 April 1997
Final 28 May 1997 at Olympiastadion, Munich

Qualifying round edit

The winners of each tie in the preliminary round entered the Champions League group stage, whilst the losers entered the UEFA Cup first round.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Maccabi Tel Aviv   1–2   Fenerbahçe 0–1 1–1
Rangers   10–3   Alania Vladikavkaz 3–1 7–2
Panathinaikos   1–3   Rosenborg 1–0 0–3 (aet)
IFK Göteborg   4–1   Ferencváros 3–0 1–1
Widzew Łódź   4–4 (a)   Brøndby 2–1 2–3
Grasshopper   6–0   Slavia Prague 5–0 1–0
Club Brugge   2–5   Steaua București 2–2 0–3
Rapid Wien   6–2   Dynamo Kyiv 2–0 4–2

Group stage edit

Location of teams of the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League group stage.
  Brown: Group A;   Red: Group B;   Orange: Group C;   Yellow: Group D.

Atlético Madrid, Auxerre, Fenerbahçe, Rapid Wien and Widzew Łódź made their debut in the group stage.

Italy became the first association to have two teams in the Champions League group stage.

Group A edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification AUX AJA GRA RAN
1   Auxerre 6 4 0 2 8 7 +1 12 Advance to knockout stage 0–1 1–0 2–1
2   Ajax 6 4 0 2 8 4 +4 12 1–2 0–1 4–1
3   Grasshopper 6 3 0 3 8 5 +3 9 3–1 0–1 3–0
4   Rangers 6 1 0 5 5 13 −8 3 1–2 0–1 2–1
Source: UEFA

Group B edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification ATL DOR WID STE
1   Atlético Madrid 6 4 1 1 12 4 +8 13 Advance to knockout stage 0–1 1–0 4–0
2   Borussia Dortmund 6 4 1 1 14 8 +6 13 1–2 2–1 5–3
3   Widzew Łódź 6 1 1 4 6 10 −4 4 1–4 2–2 2–0
4   Steaua București 6 1 1 4 5 15 −10 4 1–1 0–3 1–0
Source: UEFA

Group C edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification JUV MU FEN RAP
1   Juventus 6 5 1 0 11 1 +10 16 Advance to knockout stage 1–0 2–0 5–0
2   Manchester United 6 3 0 3 6 3 +3 9 0–1 0–1 2–0
3   Fenerbahçe 6 2 1 3 3 6 −3 7 0–1 0–2 1–0
4   Rapid Wien 6 0 2 4 2 12 −10 2 1–1 0–2 1–1
Source: UEFA

Group D edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification POR ROS MIL GÖT
1   Porto 6 5 1 0 12 4 +8 16 Advance to knockout stage 3–0 1–1 2–1
2   Rosenborg 6 3 0 3 7 11 −4 9 0–1 1–4 1–0
3   Milan 6 2 1 3 13 11 +2 7 2–3 1–2 4–2
4   IFK Göteborg 6 1 0 5 7 13 −6 3 0–2 2–3 2–1
Source: UEFA

Knockout stage edit

Bracket edit

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final
          
  Borussia Dortmund 3 1 4
  Auxerre 1 0 1
  Borussia Dortmund 1 1 2
  Manchester United 0 0 0
  Manchester United 4 0 4
  Porto 0 0 0
  Borussia Dortmund 3
  Juventus 1
  Ajax (aet) 1 3 4
  Atlético Madrid 1 2 3
  Ajax 1 1 2
  Juventus 2 4 6
  Rosenborg 1 0 1
  Juventus 1 2 3

Quarter-finals edit

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Borussia Dortmund   4–1   Auxerre 3–1 1–0
Manchester United   4–0   Porto 4–0 0–0
Ajax   4–3   Atlético Madrid 1–1 3–2(aet)
Rosenborg   1–3   Juventus 1–1 0–2

Semi-finals edit

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Borussia Dortmund   2–0   Manchester United 1–0 1–0
Ajax   2–6   Juventus 1–2 1–4

Final edit

Borussia Dortmund  3–1  Juventus
Riedle   29', 34'
Ricken   71'
Report Del Piero   65'
Attendance: 59,000

Top goalscorers edit

Rank Name Team Goals
1   Milinko Pantić   Atlético Madrid 5
2   Nicola Amoruso   Juventus 4
  Artur   Porto 4
  Alen Bokšić   Juventus 4
  Alessandro Del Piero   Juventus 4
  Mário Jardel   Porto 4
  Lars Ricken   Borussia Dortmund 4
  Karl-Heinz Riedle   Borussia Dortmund 4
  Marco Simone   Milan 4
  Christian Vieri   Juventus 4
  Diego Simeone   Atlético Madrid 4

See also edit

References edit

External links edit