The 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 15th edition of the European women's club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

championship organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, and the 7th edition since being rebranded as the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

was played at the

Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore (; with the first half officially written in all caps) is a multi-purpose stadium in Reggio Emilia, Italy. It is currently the home ground of U.S. Sassuolo and A.C. Reggiana, that both play in Serie B. T ...

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...

, Italy on 26 May 2016, two days before the final of the men's tournament played at

San Siro San Siro is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 75,817, making it the largest stadium in Italy and one of the largest stadiums in Europe. It is the home stadium of the city's principal ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

defeated

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian language, Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth-largest city in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony, on the river Aller (Germany), Aller east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the locat ...

4–3 on penalties (1–1 after extra time) to win their third European title.

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Wolfsburg in the semi-finals.

Association team allocation

A total of 56 teams from 47 of the 54

member associations participated in the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League. The ranking based on the UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *Associations 1–8 each had two teams qualify. *All other associations, should they enter, each had one team qualify. *The winners of the

2014–15 UEFA Women's Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 14th edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA. The final was played on 14 May 2015 at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark, Berlin, Germany. Unlike recent ...

were given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league. Because

finished outside the top two league places, this additional entry was necessary, meaning

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

had three teams in the competition this season.

Association ranking

For the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2009–10 to 2013–14. Spain overtook the Czech Republic in the UEFA coefficient ranking and thus assured themselves a second entry. ;Notes * – Additional berth for title holders * – Did not enter * – No rank (association did not enter in the five seasons used for computing coefficients)

Teams

Unlike the men's Champions League, not every association enters a team, and so the exact number of teams in each round can not be determined until the full entry list is known. For this season, the title holders, the champions and runners-up from associations 1–8 and the champions from associations 9–15 entered the round of 32, while the remaining teams entered the qualifying round. The following list the teams that qualified and enter this season's competition. Here TH denotes the title holders, CH denotes the national champion, RU the national runner-up, Ned 1 and Bel 1 the best placed Belgian and Dutch team in their joint league. Gibraltar's champions were still ineligible, as the 2014–15

national league National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

season was again played with only nine players per side. After some years of hiatus Georgia played out a national champion in 2014. For the first time in 12 years Neulengbach from Austria missed out on qualification. Luxembourg entered a team for the competition for the first time since the 2011–12 season. Faroese club KÍ had entered every past edition.

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in

Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

). In contrast to previous seasons, the round of 16 draw was held after the round of 32 was completed (separately from the round of 32 draw) and was seeded. Moreover, the quarter-finals were now moved back to be played in midweek, with only the semi-finals played on weekends.

Qualifying round

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 25 June 2015. The 32 teams were allocated into four seeding positions based on their 2015 UEFA club coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15 plus 33% of their association coefficient from the same time span. They were drawn into eight groups of four (one from each seeding position), with the restriction that each group had to contain one of the eight teams which were pre-selected as hosts (which were allocated their own designated pot). In each group, teams played against each other in a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts. The eight group winners advanced to the round of 32. The matchdays were 11, 13 and 16 August 2015.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Knockout phase

In the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows: *In the draw for the round of 32, the sixteen teams with the highest

UEFA coefficient In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), ...

s were seeded (with the title holders being the automatic top seed), and the other sixteen teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. *In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams with the highest

s were seeded (with the title holders being the automatic top seed should they qualify), and the other eight teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. *In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other.

Bracket

Round of 32

The draw for the round of 32 was held on 20 August 2015. The first legs were played on 7 and 8 October, and the second legs were played on 14 and 15 October 2015.

Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 19 October 2015. The first legs were played on 11 and 12 November, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 November 2015.

Quarter-finals

The draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held on 27 November 2015. The first legs were played on 23 March, and the second legs were played on 30 March 2016.

Semi-finals

The first legs were played on 24 April, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 May 2016.

Final

The final was played on 26 May 2016 at the

, Italy. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.

Statistics

Statistics include qualifying rounds.

Top goalscorers

Squad of the season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament:

References

External links

2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Women's Champions League 2015-16 Women's Champions League Champions League

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...