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. This was also the first time that players' names appeared on the back of shirts.
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.
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.
+Association ranking for 1995–96 UEFA Champions LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes163.8841245.283340.307439.098538.333634.000731.300830.400928.4501023.7491121.4501221.00001320.50011420.0001518.0001616.5501715.500RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1814.91611914.1502012.3322112.1662211.9162311.5002410.6652510.332269.0000278.666288.500298.416307.999317.666327.583335.000RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes345.0000354.998364.665374.000383.998393.333403.000412.500421.999431.500441.000451.000461.000470.500480.000490.000
Distribution RoundTeams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundQualifying round(16 teams) 16 champions from associations 8–25 (except title holders and FR Yugoslavia)Group stage(16 teams) Title holders 7 champions from associations 1–7 8 winners from the qualifying roundKnockout stage(8 teams) 4 group winners from the group stage 4 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 Ajax TH Nantes Real Madrid Porto Juventus Borussia Dortmund Blackburn Rovers Spartak Moscow Qualifying round Anderlecht AaB Legia Warsaw Ferencváros Beşiktaş IFK Göteborg Steaua București Hajduk Split Casino Salzburg Rangers Rosenborg Anorthosis Famagusta Panathinaikos Grasshopper Maccabi Tel Aviv Dynamo Kyiv
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Geneva, Switzerland).
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifying round12 July 19959 August 199523 August 1995Group stageMatchday 125 August 199513 September 1995Matchday 227 September 1995Matchday 318 October 1995Matchday 41 November 1995Matchday 522 November 1995Matchday 66 December 1995Knockout phaseQuarter-finals6 March 199620 March 1996Semi-finals3 April 199617 April 1996Final22 May 1996 at Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Qualifying round
Group stage
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
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoals1 Jari Litmanen Ajax92 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus6 Raúl Real Madrid6 Krzysztof Warzycha Panathinaikos65 Patrick Kluivert Ajax5 Yuriy Nikiforov Spartak Moscow5 Nicolas Ouédec Nantes5 Fabrizio Ravanelli Juventus59 Mike Newell Blackburn Rovers4 Iván Zamorano Real Madrid411 Erik Bo Andersen AaB3 Karl Petter Løken Rosenborg3 Reynald Pedros Nantes3 Sergei Yuran Spartak Moscow3 Japhet N'Doram Nantes3
See also 1995–96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1995–96 UEFA Cup 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup
References
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 – results and line-ups (archive)