2015–16 UEFA Youth League

The 2015–16 UEFA Youth League was the third season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.

2015–16 UEFA Youth League

The Colovray Stadium in Nyon hosted the semi-finals and final.
Tournament details
Dates	15 September 2015 – 18 April 2016
Teams	64 (from 37 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Chelsea (2nd title)
Runners-up	Paris Saint-Germain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	167
Goals scored	538 (3.22 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Roberto Núñez (Atlético Madrid) 9 goals
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

After a two-year trial period, the UEFA Youth League became a permanent UEFA competition starting from this season, with the tournament expanded from 32 to 64 teams.^[1]

Chelsea retained their title after defeating Paris Saint-Germain 2–1 in the final.^[2]

Format changes

The UEFA Executive Committee held on 18 September 2014 approved the following changes to the UEFA Youth League starting from the 2015–16 season:^[3][4]

• The tournament is expanded from 32 to 64 teams. The 64 teams include the youth teams of the 32 clubs which participate in the UEFA Champions League group stage, which have been included since the first edition, as well as the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their UEFA country coefficients, which are included starting from this edition. Associations without a youth domestic champion as well as domestic champions already included in the UEFA Champions League path are replaced by the next association in the UEFA ranking.
• The new format of the competition sees the two groups of teams compete in separate paths until the play-offs:
  • In the UEFA Champions League path, the 32 Champions League youth teams retain the group stage format and schedule which correspond to the Champions League group stage. The group winners advance to the round of 16, and the group runners-up advance to the play-offs.
  • In the Domestic Champions path, the 32 youth domestic champions play two rounds of two-legged ties, with the eight winners advancing to the play-offs.
  • In the play-offs, the youth domestic champions play a single match at home against the UEFA Champions League path group runners-up.
  • In the round of 16, the UEFA Champions League path group winners play a single match against the winners of the play-offs (home team determined by draw).
  • In the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final, teams play each other over a single match (quarter-finals home team determined by draw, semi-finals and final played at neutral venues).
• The under-19 age limit is retained, but clubs are able to include a maximum of three under-20 players in their overall list of 40 players for the competition, in order to alleviate the burden on players having school duties.

Teams

A total of 64 teams from 37 of the 54 UEFA member associations entered the tournament. They were split into two sections:^[5][6]

• The youth teams of the 32 clubs which qualified for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage entered the UEFA Champions League Path.
• The youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their 2014 UEFA country coefficients entered the Domestic Champions Path. Associations without a youth domestic champion as well as domestic champions already included in the UEFA Champions League path were replaced by the next association in the UEFA ranking.^[7][8]

Rank	Association	Teams
		UEFA Champions League Path	Domestic Champions Path
1	Spain	Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Sevilla Valencia	Villarreal
2	England	Chelsea[TH] Manchester City Arsenal Manchester United	Middlesbrough
3	Germany	Bayern Munich VfL Wolfsburg Borussia Mönchengladbach Bayer Leverkusen	Schalke 04
4	Italy	Juventus Roma	Torino
5	Portugal	Benfica Porto[†]
6	France	Paris Saint-Germain Lyon	Reims
7	Russia	Zenit Saint Petersburg CSKA Moscow	Spartak Moscow
8	Netherlands	PSV Eindhoven	Ajax
9	Ukraine	Dynamo Kyiv Shakhtar Donetsk[†]
10	Belgium	Gent	Anderlecht
11	Turkey	Galatasaray	Beşiktaş
12	Greece	Olympiacos[†]
13	Switzerland		Servette
14	Austria		Red Bull Salzburg
15	Czech Republic		Příbram
16	Romania		Viitorul Constanța
17	Israel	Maccabi Tel Aviv[†]
18	Cyprus		APOEL
19	Denmark		Midtjylland
20	Croatia	Dinamo Zagreb[†]
21	Poland		Legia Warsaw
22	Belarus	BATE Borisov	Minsk
23	Scotland		Celtic[9]
24	Sweden	Malmö FF	IF Elfsborg
25	Bulgaria		Litex Lovech
26	Norway		Brann
27	Serbia		Rad
28	Hungary		Puskás Akadémia
29	Slovenia		Domžale
30	Slovakia		Senica
31	Moldova		Zimbru Chișinău
32	Azerbaijan		Ravan Baku
33	Georgia		Saburtalo Tbilisi
34	Kazakhstan	Astana	Aktobe
35	Bosnia and Herzegovina		Željezničar
36	Finland		HJK
37	Iceland		Stjarnan
Associations which did not enter a team
38	Latvia
39	Montenegro
40	Albania
41	Lithuania
42	Macedonia
43	Republic of Ireland
44	Luxembourg
45	Malta
46	Liechtenstein
47	Northern Ireland
48	Wales
49	Armenia
50	Estonia
51	Faroe Islands
52	San Marino
53	Andorra
54	Gibraltar

Notes

1. ^TH Title holders
2. ^† Teams which were also youth domestic champions.

Squads

Players must be born on or after 1 January 1997, with a maximum of three players per team born between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1996 allowed.

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).^[5][10]

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
UEFA Champions League Path Group stage	Matchday 1	27 August 2015 (Monaco)	15–16 September 2015
	Matchday 2		29–30 September 2015
	Matchday 3		20–21 October 2015
	Matchday 4		3–4 November 2015
	Matchday 5		24–25 November 2015
	Matchday 6		8–9 December 2015
Domestic Champions Path	First round	1 September 2015	29–30 September 2015	20–21 October 2015
	Second round		3–4 November 2015	24–25 November 2015
Knockout phase	Knockout round play-offs	14 December 2015	9–10 February 2016
	Round of 16	15 February 2016	23–24 February 2016
	Quarter-finals		8–9 March 2016
	Semi-finals		15 April 2016 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon
	Final		18 April 2016 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon

Notes

• For the UEFA Champions League Path group stage, in principle the teams play their matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the same day as the corresponding senior teams in the UEFA Champions League; however, matches may also be played on other dates, including Mondays and Thursdays.
• For the Domestic Champions Path first and second rounds, in principle matches are played on Wednesdays; however, matches may also be played on other dates, including Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• For the play-offs, round of 16 and quarter-finals, in principle matches are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; however, matches may also be played on other dates, provided they are completed before the following dates:
  • Play-offs: 12 February 2016
  • Round of 16: 26 February 2016
  • Quarter-finals: 18 March 2016

UEFA Champions League Path

Main article: 2015–16 UEFA Youth League group stage

For the UEFA Champions League Path, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. There was no separate draw held, with the group compositions identical to the draw for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage, which was held in Monaco on 27 August 2015.^[11][12]

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The eight group winners advanced to the round of 16, while the eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs, where they were joined by the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path. The matchdays were 15–16 September, 29–30 September, 20–21 October, 3–4 November, 24–25 November, and 8–9 December 2015.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (regulations Article 14.03):[5] higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question; higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question; if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 applied; superior goal difference in all group matches; higher number of goals scored in all group matches; higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; higher number of wins in all group matches; higher number of away wins in all group matches; lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PAR	RMA	MAL	SHK
1	Paris Saint-Germain	6	4	1	1	16	6	+10	13	Advance to round of 16		—	4–1	0–0	5–2
2	Real Madrid	6	4	0	2	16	7	+9	12	Advance to play-offs		2–0	—	3–0	4–0
3	Malmö FF	6	1	2	3	7	14	−7	5			0–3	1–0	—	5–5
4	Shakhtar Donetsk	6	1	1	4	13	25	−12	4			1–4	2–6	3–1	—

Source: UEFA

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PSV	CSKA	MUN	WOL
1	PSV Eindhoven	6	3	1	2	10	9	+1	10	Advance to round of 16		—	2–1	0–3	2–1
2	CSKA Moscow	6	2	2	2	10	6	+4	8[a]	Advance to play-offs		0–0	—	4–0	1–2
3	Manchester United	6	2	2	2	6	10	−4	8[a]			0–5	0–0	—	1–1
4	VfL Wolfsburg	6	2	1	3	10	11	−1	7			4–1	2–4	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked by head-to-head record (CSKA Moscow: 4 pts; Manchester United: 1 pt).

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BEN	ATM	GAL	AST
1	Benfica	6	5	1	0	29	3	+26	16	Advance to round of 16		—	1–1	2–0	8–0
2	Atlético Madrid	6	4	1	1	25	5	+20	13	Advance to play-offs		1–2	—	4–0	7–1
3	Galatasaray	6	2	0	4	8	20	−12	6			1–11	1–3	—	3–0
4	Astana	6	0	0	6	1	35	−34	0			0–5	0–9	0–3	—

Source: UEFA

Group D

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MCI	SEV	JUV	BMG
1	Manchester City	6	3	2	1	11	6	+5	11[a]	Advance to round of 16		—	1–1	4–1	1–1
2	Sevilla	6	3	2	1	9	7	+2	11[a]	Advance to play-offs		0–2	—	1–0	4–2
3	Juventus	6	2	0	4	7	11	−4	6			2–1	0–1	—	2–1
4	Borussia Mönchengladbach	6	1	2	3	10	13	−3	5			1–2	2–2	3–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked by head-to-head record (Manchester City: 4 pts; Sevilla: 1 pt).

Group E

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BAR	ROM	LEV	BATE
1	Barcelona	6	3	3	0	10	4	+6	12	Advance to round of 16		—	3–3	1–1	2–0
2	Roma	6	2	3	1	12	6	+6	9	Advance to play-offs		0–0	—	5–1	3–0
3	Bayer Leverkusen	6	2	2	2	6	9	−3	8			0–1	2–1	—	1–0
4	BATE Borisov	6	0	2	4	1	10	−9	2			0–3	0–0	1–1	—

Source: UEFA

Group F

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		DZG	ARS	OLY	BAY
1	Dinamo Zagreb	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	10[a]	Advance to round of 16		—	0–2	2–2	0–1
2	Arsenal	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10[a]	Advance to play-offs		1–2	—	3–2	2–0
3	Olympiacos	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	10[a]			1–3	2–0	—	1–0
4	Bayern Munich	6	1	1	4	3	7	−4	4			1–2	1–1	0–1	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked by head-to-head record (Dinamo Zagreb: 7 pts; Arsenal: 6 pts; Olympiacos: 4 pts).

Group G

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CHE	DKV	POR	MTA
1	Chelsea	6	4	2	0	15	4	+11	14	Advance to round of 16		—	3–1	0–0	3–0
2	Dynamo Kyiv	6	3	1	2	7	7	0	10	Advance to play-offs		0–2	—	2–1	2–0
3	Porto	6	2	2	2	8	7	+1	8			3–3	0–1	—	2–0
4	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6	0	1	5	2	14	−12	1			0–4	1–1	1–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group H

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LYO	VAL	ZEN	GNT
1	Lyon	6	4	1	1	16	4	+12	13[a]	Advance to round of 16		—	1–0	6–0	4–0
2	Valencia	6	4	1	1	13	3	+10	13[a]	Advance to play-offs		1–1	—	2–0	5–1
3	Zenit Saint Petersburg	6	2	0	4	5	11	−6	6			3–1	0–1	—	0–1
4	Gent	6	1	0	5	2	18	−16	3			0–3	0–4	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

1. Ranked by head-to-head record (Lyon: 4 pts; Valencia: 1 pt).

Domestic Champions Path

Main article: 2015–16 UEFA Youth League Domestic Champions Path

For the Domestic Champions Path, the 32 teams were drawn into two rounds of two-legged home-and-away ties. The draw was held on 1 September 2015.^[13][14] There were no seedings, but the 32 teams were split into four groups defined by sporting and geographical criteria prior to the draw.^[15]

• In the first round, teams in the same group were drawn against each other.
• In the second round, the winners from Group 1 were drawn against the winners from Group 2, and the winners from Group 3 were drawn against the winners from Group 4, with the order of legs decided by draw.

The eight second round winners advanced to the play-offs, where they were joined by the eight group runners-up from the UEFA Champions League Path.

If the aggregate scores were level after full-time of the second leg, the away goals rule was used to decide the winner. If still tied, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out (no extra time was played).^[5]

First round

The first legs were played on 29 and 30 September, and the second legs were played on 7, 14, 20 and 21 October 2015.^[6]

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Villarreal	4–4 (a)	Servette	2–3	2–1
APOEL	4–9	Puskás Akadémia	3–3	1–6
Senica	1–2	Torino	0–0	1–2
Rad	1–1 (3–2 p)	Domžale	0–1	1–0
Reims	5–6	Middlesbrough	5–3	0–3
IF Elfsborg	2–1	Stjarnan	2–0	0–1
Brann	1–6	Anderlecht	1–1	0–5
HJK	1–6	Celtic	0–5	1–1
Schalke 04	2–5	Ajax	2–3	0–2
Příbram	4–1	Zimbru Chișinău	2–0	2–1
Red Bull Salzburg	5–2	Željezničar	4–0	1–2
Midtjylland	5–2[a]	Saburtalo Tbilisi	3–1	2–1
Aktobe	0–6	Beşiktaş	0–2	0–4
Spartak Moscow	4–0	Ravan Baku	4–0	0–0
Minsk	3–7	Viitorul Constanța	2–2	1–5
Litex Lovech	2–5	Legia Warsaw	1–2	1–3

Notes:

1. Order of legs reversed after original draw.

Second round

The first legs were played on 4, 5 November and 2 December, and the second legs were played on 24, 25 November and 6 December 2015.^[6]

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Puskás Akadémia	1–3	Celtic	1–0	0–3
Rad	0–1	IF Elfsborg	0–1	0–0
Servette	3–4[a]	Anderlecht	1–2	2–2
Middlesbrough	6–3	Torino	3–0	3–3
Spartak Moscow	1–5	Ajax	0–3	1–2
Beşiktaş	2–5	Red Bull Salzburg	1–0	1–5
Midtjylland	5–1	Legia Warsaw	2–0	3–1
Příbram	2–0	Viitorul Constanța	2–0	0–0

Notes:

1. Order of legs reversed after original draw.

Knockout phase

Main article: 2015–16 UEFA Youth League knockout phase

For the knockout phase, the teams were drawn into a single-elimination tournament, with all ties played over one match. The knockout round play-off draw was held on 14 December 2015,^[16][17] while the draw for the round of 16 onwards was held on 15 February 2016.^[18][19] The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:

• In the draw for the knockout round play-offs, the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path were drawn against the eight group runners-up from the UEFA Champions League Path, with the teams from the Domestic Champions Path hosting the match. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
• In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners from the UEFA Champions League Path were drawn against the eight play-off winners. Teams from the same UEFA Champions League Path group could not be drawn against each other, but teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. The draw also decided the home team for each round of 16 match.
• In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same UEFA Champions League Path group or the same association could be drawn against each other. The draws also decided the home team for each quarter-final, and the "home" team for administrative purposes for each semi-final and final (which were played at a neutral venue).

If the scores were level after full-time, the match was decided by a penalty shoot-out (no extra time was played).^[5]

Bracket

	Knockout round play-offs					Round of 16					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Final
						Real Madrid		3
	IF Elfsborg		1			Manchester City		1
											Real Madrid		2
	Real Madrid		3
											Benfica		0
						Příbram		1 (3)
																15 April – Nyon
	Příbram (p)		1 (5)			Benfica (p)		1 (5)
																Real Madrid		1
	CSKA Moscow		1 (4)
																Paris Saint-Germain		3
						Paris Saint-Germain		1
	Middlesbrough		5			Middlesbrough		0
											Paris Saint-Germain		3
	Dynamo Kyiv		0
											Roma		1
						PSV Eindhoven		2 (1)
																					18 April – Nyon
	Red Bull Salzburg		0			Roma (p)		2 (3)
																					Paris Saint-Germain		1
	Roma		4
																					Chelsea		2
						Chelsea (p)		1 (5)
	Celtic		1 (3)			Valencia		1 (3)
											Chelsea		1
	Valencia (p)		1 (4)
											Ajax		0
						Lyon		0
																15 April – Nyon
	Ajax		3			Ajax		3
																Chelsea		3
	Sevilla		1
																Anderlecht		0
						Anderlecht		3
	Anderlecht		2			Dinamo Zagreb		0
											Anderlecht		2
	Arsenal		0
											Barcelona		0
						Barcelona		3
	Midtjylland (p)		4 (5)			Midtjylland		1
	Atlético Madrid		4 (4)

Knockout round play-offs

The play-offs were played on 9 and 10 February 2016. The eight play-off winners advanced to the round of 16, where they were joined by the eight group winners from the UEFA Champions League Path.

Home team	Score	Away team
Ajax	3–1	Sevilla
Příbram	2–2 (5–4 p)	CSKA Moscow
Red Bull Salzburg	0–4	Roma
Anderlecht	2–0	Arsenal
Celtic	1–1 (3–4 p)	Valencia
IF Elfsborg	1–3	Real Madrid
Middlesbrough	5–0	Dynamo Kyiv
Midtjylland	4–4 (5–4 p)	Atlético Madrid

Round of 16

The round of 16 matches were played on 23 and 24 February 2016.

Home team	Score	Away team
PSV Eindhoven	2–2 (1–3 p)	Roma
Příbram	1–1 (3–5 p)	Benfica
Anderlecht	3–0[a]	Dinamo Zagreb
Lyon	0–3	Ajax
Chelsea	1–1 (5–3 p)	Valencia
Real Madrid	3–1	Manchester City
Paris Saint-Germain	1–0	Middlesbrough
Barcelona	3–1	Midtjylland

Notes:

1. Match originally finished 0–2 in favour of Dinamo Zagreb, but was awarded by UEFA as 3–0 win for Anderlecht due to Dinamo Zagreb fielding suspended player Matija Fintić.^[20]

Quarter-finals

The quarter-finals were played on 8, 9 and 15 March 2016.

Home team	Score	Away team
Chelsea	1–0	Ajax
Paris Saint-Germain	3–1	Roma
Anderlecht	2–0	Barcelona
Real Madrid	2–0	Benfica

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were played on 15 April 2016 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon.^[21]

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Real Madrid	1–3	Paris Saint-Germain
Chelsea	3–0	Anderlecht

Final

The final was played on 18 April 2016 at Colovray Stadium, Nyon.^[21]

18 April 2016 (2016-04-18)

17:00 UTC+2

Paris Saint-Germain	1–2	Chelsea
Meïté 58'	Report	Tomori 10' Palmer 61'

Colovray Stadium, Nyon

Attendance: 4,000^[22]

Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals	Minutes played
1	Roberto Núñez	Atlético Madrid	9	624
2	Borja Mayoral	Real Madrid	8	614
	Tammy Abraham	Chelsea		810
4	José Gomes	Benfica	7	328
	Diogo Gonçalves	Benfica		496
6	Rafael Mir	Valencia	6	617
	Jorn Vancamp	Anderlecht		633
	Carles Aleñá	Barcelona		716
9	Leandro Putaro	VfL Wolfsburg	5	410
	Kasey Palmer	Chelsea		545
	Jean-Kévin Augustin	Paris Saint-Germain		641
	Umar Sadiq	Roma		769

Source: UEFA^[23]

Top assists

Rank	Player	Team	Assists	Minutes played
1	Harrison Chapman	Middlesbrough	8	540
2	Sam Lammers	PSV Eindhoven	4	512
	Fran Villalba[24]	Valencia		546
	Théo Chendri	Barcelona		570
	Umar Sadiq	Roma		769
	Christopher Nkunku	Paris Saint-Germain		788

Source: UEFA^[25]