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
Dates7–21 August 1996 (qualifying)
11 September 1996 – 28 May 1997 (competition proper)
Teams16 (group stage)
24 (total)
Final positions
Champions Borussia Dortmund (1st title)
Runners-up Juventus
Tournament statistics
Matches played61
Goals scored161 (2.64 per match)
Attendance2,093,228 (34,315 per match)
Top scorer(s) Milinko Pantić
(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

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) Göteborg (1st) Rosenborg (1st) Widzew Łódź (1st)
Fenerbahçe (1st) Grasshopper (1st) Dynamo Kyiv (1st) Maccabi Tel Aviv (1st)

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 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
Main article: 1996–97 UEFA Champions League qualifying round

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. 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
Main article: 1996–97 UEFA Champions League group stage
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.

Group A
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:

Group B
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:

Group C
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:

Group D
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:

Knockout stage
Main article: 1996–97 UEFA Champions League knockout stage

Bracket
  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
Team 1 Agg. 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
Team 1 Agg. 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
Main article: 1997 UEFA Champions League Final
Borussia Dortmund 3–1 Juventus
Riedle  29', 34'
Ricken  71'		 Report Del Piero  65'
Olympiastadion, Munich
Attendance: 59,000

Top goalscorers

The top scorers from the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) are as follows:

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

References
  1. UEFA Country Ranking 1996
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.