1995–96 UEFA Champions League

1995–96 UEFA Champions League

The Stadio Olimpico in Rome held the final.
Tournament details
Dates	9 – 23 August 1995 (qualifying) 13 September 1995 – 22 May 1996 (competition proper)
Teams	16 (group stage) 24 (total)
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 (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 their reaching the next two finals, and one of only two 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.

Teams

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

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 referee Antonio López Nieto to get a win. Despite an appeal, they were thrown out of the competition by UEFA and were banned for the subsequent two years. Aalborg BK replaced them in the group stage. Dynamo's ban was eventually reduced to just 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	1–0	0–0
Legia Warsaw	3–1	IFK Göteborg	1–0	2–1
Casino Salzburg	0–1	Steaua Bucureşti	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

Panathinaikos

Nantes

Porto

Aalborg

Spartak Moscow

Legia Warsaw

Rosenborg

Blackburn Rovers

Juventus

Borussia Dortmund

Steaua București

Rangers

Ajax

Real Madrid

Ferencváros

Grasshopper

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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: 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

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Panathinaikos 6 3 2 1 7 3 +4 11 Nantes 6 2 3 1 8 6 +2 9 Porto 6 1 4 1 6 5 +1 7 Aalborg BK 6 1 1 4 5 12 −7 4

AAB NAN PAN POR Aalborg BK – 0–2 2–1 2–2 Nantes 3–1 – 0–0 0–0 Panathinaikos 2–0 3–1 – 0–0 Porto 2–0 2–2 0–1 –

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Spartak Moscow 6 6 0 0 15 4 +11 18 Legia Warsaw 6 2 1 3 5 8 −3 7 Rosenborg 6 2 0 4 11 16 −5 6 Blackburn Rovers 6 1 1 4 5 8 −3 4

BR LW ROS SPA Blackburn Rovers – 0–0 4–1 0–1 Legia Warsaw 1–0 – 3–1 0–1 Rosenborg 2–1 4–0 – 2–4 Spartak Moscow 3–0 2–1 4–1 –

Group C

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Juventus 6 4 1 1 15 4 +11 13 Borussia Dortmund 6 2 3 1 8 8 0 9 Steaua București 6 1 3 2 2 5 −3 6 Rangers 6 0 3 3 6 14 −8 3

DOR JUV RAN STE Borussia Dortmund – 1–3 2–2 1–0 Juventus 1–2 – 4–1 3–0 Rangers 2–2 0–4 – 1–1 Steaua București 0–0 0–0 1–0 –

Group D

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Ajax 6 5 1 0 15 1 +14 16 Real Madrid 6 3 1 2 11 5 +6 10 Ferencváros 6 1 2 3 9 19 −10 5 Grasshopper 6 0 2 4 3 13 −10 2

AJA FER GRA RM Ajax – 4–0 3–0 1–0 Ferencváros 1–5 – 3–3 1–1 Grasshopper 0–0 0–3 – 0–2 Real Madrid 0–2 6–1 2–0 –

Knockout stage

Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	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.Tooltip Aggregate score	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

22 May 1996

20:30

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: 67,000

Referee: Manuel Díaz Vega (Spain)

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

See also

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

External links

• 1995–96 All matches – season at UEFA website
• 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)