CHELSEA travel to Spain to take on Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final first-leg on Tuesday night having not played the LaLiga giants since 1998.
The Blues famously beat Los Blancos 1-0 in the Super Cup showdown that year.
Gianluca Vialli’s side qualified for the one-off showdown after winning the 1997-98 Cup Winners’ Cup, beating Stuttgart 1-0 in the final thanks to a late winner from Gianfranco Zola.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid clinched the Champions League title with a 1-0 win of their own having beaten Juventus – with Predrag Mijatovic grabbing the winner.
And that set-up the first-ever one-legged Super Cup showdown, played at Monaco’s Stade Louis II in August.
Chelsea were indebted to Gus Poyet on the south coast of France as he came off the bench to score an 83rd-minute winner.
But who started that night in Monaco?
Ed De Goey got the nod in goal, with SIX defenders shoehorned into Vialli’s XI.
New signing Albert Ferrer – who joined from Barcelona that summer – took the right-back slot, with Graeme Le Saux on the left.
Frank Leboeuf and Michael Duberry paired up in the heart of defence.
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Marcel Desailly – fresh from moving to Stamford Bridge from AC Milan – played at the base of a midfield diamond.
Dennis Wise and Celestine Babayaro played on the right and left of the diamond respectively.
Roberto Di Matteo took on the No10 role behind Gianfranco Zola and Pierluigi Casiraghi – another summer buy from Lazio – in an all-Italian attacking trio.
But none of them were able to break the deadlock in Monaco against a star-studded Real Madrid XI, which included the likes of Fernando Hierro, Raul, Clarence Seedorf and Roberto Carlos.
Instead it was Blues icon Poyet who struck just 20 minutes after coming off the bench.
The Uruguayan replaced Di Matteo shortly after the hour mark and rifled a right-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net to ultimately seal the win.
Elsewhere, Brian Laudrup – a free summer signing from Rangers – also came off the bench, replacing Zola late on.
Tore Andre Flo also enjoyed a brief run-out, coming on for Casiraghi with just one minute of the 90 remaining.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
