2015–16 Uefa Youth League

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 (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.

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

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

• 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.

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

• 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.

Rank	Association	Teams
		UEFA Champions League Path	Domestic Champions Path
1	Spain	Barcelona Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Sevilla Valencia	Villarreal
2	England	Chelsea 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
24	Sweden	Malmö FF	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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PSG	RMA	MFF	SHA
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	—

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PSV	CSK	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	Advance to play-offs		0–0	—	4–0	1–2
3	Manchester United	6	2	2	2	6	10	−4	8			0–5	0–0	—	1–1
4	VfL Wolfsburg	6	2	1	3	10	11	−1	7			4–1	2–4	0–2	—