1995–96 UEFA Champions League

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 →

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.

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 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

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams
17	Switzerland	15.500	1
18	Poland	14.916
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

Rank	Association	Coeff.	Teams	Notes
33	Czech Republic	5.000	0
34	Wales	5.000
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

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

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^TH (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)

^
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.
^
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

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	Advance to knockout stage	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:

^ 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	Advance to knockout stage	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	Advance to knockout stage	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	Advance to knockout stage	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

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

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

22 May 1996

20:30 CEST

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

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
9	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

References

^ ^a ^b "UEFA Country Ranking 1995". Bert Kassies. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
^ "1990/91–1994/95". Pawel Mogielnicki. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
^ Protzen, Martin (24 May 1995). "FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
^ Protzen, Martin (29 May 1996). "FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
^ "2. Finals" (PDF). UEFA Champions League Statistics Handbook 2016/17. Nyon, Switzerland: Union of European Football Associations. 2017. p. 1. Retrieved 22 April 2017.

External links

1995–96 All matches – season at UEFA website
All matches - Line ups
European Cup results at RSSSF
All scorers 1995–96 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round
1995/96 UEFA Champions League – results and line-ups (archive)

[cnote_Note_LIE] 
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.

[cnote_Note_YUG] 
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]

[table_note_AAB0.31410840913379-5] After matchday 1 in the group, AaB replaced Dynamo Kyiv, who were banned following a failed attempt to bribe a referee.

[country_ranking-1] "UEFA Country Ranking 1995". Bert Kassies. Retrieved 29 January 2025.

[2] "1990/91–1994/95". Pawel Mogielnicki. Retrieved 28 January 2025.

[3] Protzen, Martin (24 May 1995). "FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 January 2025.

[4] Protzen, Martin (29 May 1996). "FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups". RSSSF. Retrieved 28 January 2025.

[attendance-6] "2. Finals" (PDF). UEFA Champions League Statistics Handbook 2016/17. Nyon, Switzerland: Union of European Football Associations. 2017. p. 1. Retrieved 22 April 2017.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[Note YUG]

[Note LIE]

[4]

[a]

[5]

v t e 1995–96 in European football (UEFA)
Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '95 '96 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina (Herzeg-Bosnia, Republika Srpska) Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '95 '96 Finland '95 '96 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '95 '96 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '95 '96 Latvia '95 '96 Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '95 '96 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia '95 '96 San Marino Scotland Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '95 '96 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales FR Yugoslavia
Domestic cups	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '95 '96 Finland '95 '96 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '95 '96 Israel Italy Latvia '95 '96 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '95 '96 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales FR Yugoslavia
League cups	England Finland '95 '96 France Iceland Israel Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Scotland Wales
Supercups	England Germany
UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying, group stage, knockout stage, Final) Cup Winners' Cup (Final) UEFA Cup (Final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup

v t e International men's club football competitions
Under-20 Intercontinental Cup World Leagues Forum Lists of association football clubs (Most successful clubs)
Global	FIFA Club World Cup Intercontinental Cup
Africa	CAF Champions League Confederation Cup Super Cup Football League Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) CAF Cup (defunct) Regional: UNAF Kagame Interclub Cup North African Cup of Champions (defunct) North African Cup Winners Cup (defunct) North African Super Cup (defunct) WAFU (defunct)
Asia	AFC Champions League Elite Champions League Two Challenge League Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) Super Cup (defunct) Regional: ASEAN SAFF
Europe	UEFA Champions League Europa League Conference League Super Cup Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) Intertoto Cup (defunct)
North, Central America and the Caribbean	CONCACAF Champions Cup Cup Winners Cup (defunct) CONCACAF League (defunct) Campeonato Centroamericano (defunct) Regional: Leagues Cup Central American Cup Caribbean Cup Caribbean Club Shield Caribbean Club Championship (defunct) UNCAF Interclub Cup (defunct) SuperLiga (defunct)
Oceania	OFC Champions League Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) President's Cup (defunct)
South America	CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores Copa Sudamericana Recopa Sudamericana Copa CONMEBOL (defunct) Copa Ganadores de Copa (defunct) Supercopa Libertadores (defunct) Copa Master de CONMEBOL (defunct) Copa Master de Supercopa (defunct) Copa de Oro (defunct) Regional: Copa Merconorte (defunct) Copa Mercosur (defunct)
Intercontinental	Arab Club Champions Cup Arab Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) Arab Super Cup (defunct) Intercontinental Cup (defunct) Afro-Asian Club Championship (defunct) Copa Interamericana (defunct)
See also: International women's club football

Association team allocation

Association ranking

Distribution

Teams

Round and draw dates

Qualifying round

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top goalscorers

See also

References

External links