Back in 1998, Italian football was at the peak of its powers. The money was flowing in and it seemed that even average teams were producing or signing some top class players that would eventually have glittering careers to look back on.

France, on the other hand, was still a few months off the World Cup victory that would transform the country back into a European powerhouse, but still, they too were capable of bringing through some frighteningly talented players.

And in April of that year, Italian giants Juventus were drawn against Monaco in the Champions League semi-final and the pair produced one of the most stunningly entertaining encounters the game has ever seen.

During the first leg, Juventus ran out 4-1 winners on home soil. A hat-trick from Alessandro Del Piero and a late strike from Zinedine Zidane canceled out an effort from Costinha to seemingly give them safe passage into the final.

But Monaco wasn't going to roll over easily, and made an almighty fight of the second leg, winning 3-2 on the night but losing 6-4 on aggregate.

The football on show was free-flowing and never defensive despite containing an Italian team or a huge lead that one team were taking into the next leg, and the players playing it were out of this world.

Juventus were able to line up with the likes of Angel Peruzzi, Angelo Di Livio, Del Piero, Filippo Inzaghi, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane and Edgar Davids – and that was in the starting lineup.

On the bench, they were also able to boast the talents of Antonio Conte and Alessandro Brindelli.

Monaco were no slouches either and put out a team containing the likes of Fabian Barthez, John Collins, Ali Benarbia, David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry and Viktor Ikpeba, while also having French international defender Willy Sagnol on the bench.

The French side has frequently been able to produce crops of talented young players and building a team by combining them with talented established players that they were able to pick up for small fees. They did the same in 2004 

They would do the same in 2004 with young players like Patrice Evra and Emmanuel Adebayor supporting the more established players like Fernando Morientes and Ludovic Giuly.

This time around Juventus are being billed as the 'immovable object' as they are yet to concede a goal in the knockout stages, so chances of conceding three goals over either leg this time around aren't likely.

Real Madrid would eventually go on to lift the trophy that season, beating Juventus in the final 1-0 thanks to a goal from Predrag Mijatović.

Both clubs could meet again in the final this time around, but Monaco and Atletico Madrid will have something to say about it first.