The competition was won by Manchester United, coming back from a goal down in the last two minutes of injury time to defeat Bayern Munich 2–1 in the final.

Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored United's goals after Bayern had hit the post and the bar.

Manchester United won the trophy without losing a single match, despite having competed in a group with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Brøndby, plus two highly rated Italian clubs in the knock-out stages.

Number of teams per country as well as the starting round for each club and seeding were based on UEFA association coefficients.

FC Kaiserslautern, Lens and Sturm Graz made their debuts in the group stage of the competition.

The knockout stage was played in a single-elimination tournament format consisting of three rounds: quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

If neither side scored during golden goal extra time, a penalty shoot-out would again be used to determine the winner.