1996–97 UEFA Champions League

The Olympiastadion in Munich held the final
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying: 7–21 August 1996 Competition proper: 11 September 1996 – 28 May 1997
Teams	Competition proper: 16 Total: 24
Final positions
Champions	Borussia Dortmund (1st title)
Runners-up	Juventus
Tournament statistics
Matches played	61
Goals scored	161 (2.64 per match)
Attendance	2,093,228 (34,315 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Milinko Pantić (Atlético Madrid) 5 goals
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

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 that involved 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.

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.

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)

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Geneva, Switzerland).

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

Auxerre

Ajax

Grasshopper

Rangers

Atlético Madrid

Borussia Dortmund

Widzew Łódź

Steaua București

Juventus

Manchester United

Fenerbahçe

Rapid Wien

Porto

Rosenborg

Milan

IFK Göteborg

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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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AUX	AJX	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	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ATM	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	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		JUV	MUN	FEN	RWI
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	—

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		POR	ROS	MIL	GOT
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	—

	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
															28 May – Munich
	Porto		0	0	0
															Borussia Dortmund		3
															Juventus		1
	Ajax (a.e.t.)		1	3	4
	Atlético Madrid		1	2	3
								Ajax		1	1	2
								Juventus		2	4	6
	Rosenborg		1	0	1
	Juventus		1	2	3

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 (a.e.t.)
Rosenborg	1–3	Juventus	1–1	0–2

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

The final was played on 28 May 1997 at the Olympiastadion in Munich, Germany.

28 May 1997

20:30 CEST

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

Olympiastadion, Munich

Attendance: 59,000^[2]

Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)

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

• 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup
• 1996–97 UEFA Cup
• 1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup

• 1996–97 All matches – season at UEFA website
• European Cup results at RSSSF
• All scorers 1996–97 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round
• 1996/97 UEFA Champions League – results and line-ups