The 1996-97 champions league was widely anticipated and previous finalists, Ajax, stormed into the second round as they topped a group consisting of Auxerre and Rangers. Ajax beat Auxerre and Rangers along the way and this awarded them with a quarter final tie against Athletico Madrid, after the two legs nothing could separate the two teams and the match was forced into extra time, which Ajax eventually won. Madrid reached the quarter finals with relative ease as they comfortably topped their group which consisted of eventual finalists Borussia Dortmund and Steuna Buchaerst.
Manchester United found themselves in a tough group including Juventus and Turkish champions, Fenerbache. United lost both their matches against Juventus and they had to rely on a lucky away victory against Austrian champions, SK Rapid Wien, to go through to the quarter finals. United met FC Porto in the quarter finals and embarked on o0ne of their finest European victories as they thrashed Porto 4-0 at home. Their semi-final match against Borussia Dortmund certainly did not follow the same pattern as they lost both legs 1-0 and Alex Ferguson and his men stared elimination in the face. Rosenburg was the surprise package of the competition as they pepped AC Milan for second place in group D; they surprised everybody by narrowly beating AC Milan 2-1 in Italy.
The defending champions, Juventus, met Rosenborg in the quarter finals, after a 1-1 draw in the first leg, Juventus stamped their authority by comfortably beating them 2-0 in the return leg. Juventus met Ajax in the semi finals which was a thrilling re match of the final from the previous year. Juventus went back to Italy with a one goal advantage after the first leg ended 2-1, however in the return leg; Juventus played some exhilarating football and ultimately thrashed the Dutch champions 4-1.
It was fitting that the final staged in Munich consisted of a German team, Borussia Dortmund and they were up against previous finalists, Juventus. Dortmund dominated the early stages of the match and their star striker, Karl Heinz Riedle scored two goals in five minutes late on in the first half. Allesandro Del Piero found Juventus a life line mid way through the second half however Lars Ricken sealed the victory with a quarter of an hour to spare.