1997–98 UEFA Champions League
43rd season of the UEFA club football tournament / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 1997–98 UEFA Champions League was the 43rd season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier club football tournament, and the sixth since its re-branding from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The tournament was won by Real Madrid, winning for the first time in 32 years, beating 1–0 Juventus who were playing in a third consecutive final. It started a run of three victories in five seasons for the Spanish club.
Tournament details | |
---|---|
Dates | Qualifying: 23 July – 27 August 1997 Competition proper: 17 September 1997 – 20 May 1998 |
Teams | Competition proper: 24 Total: 55 |
Final positions | |
Champions | Real Madrid (7th title) |
Runners-up | Juventus |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 85 |
Goals scored | 239 (2.81 per match) |
Attendance | 2,868,568 (33,748 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) 10 goals |
← 1996–97 1998–99 → |
This season was the first to have six groups, instead of previous four, which meant that only two group runners-up qualified for the quarter-finals as opposed to all the second-placed teams. It was also the first to have two qualifying rounds instead of just one. After three years of entering the UEFA Cup, champions of smaller nations returned to the Champions League. For the first time, the runners-up of eight domestic leagues entered into the competition.[1] With Borussia Dortmund being the title holders but finishing third in their domestic league the previous season, Germany became the first association to provide three teams to the premier European competition.
Borussia Dortmund, the defending champions, were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winners Real Madrid.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia and the Republic of Macedonia all entered their champions for the first time, while the champion of Yugoslavia returned to this competition for the first time since 1991–92 season after the UN ban was lifted.