Real Madrid travel to Lisbon to play Sporting tonight, knowing that a win will book their place in the last 16 with a game to spare.
Zinedine Zidane's side are currently two points behind Group leaders Borussia Dortmund but with tonight's opponents only picking up three points so far, a win guarantees qualification to the knockout phases. It's a big game.
Seeing as though Sporting and Real Madrid will lock horns tonight, we've decided to look back at the last meeting in Lisbon between the two sides, which featured an absolute gem of a free-kick.
Advert
Back in 2000, the two sides were paired in the same group in the Champions League alongside Spartak Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen.
In the opening contest in Group A, Real travelled to EstΓ‘dio JosΓ© Alvalade to play Sporting and played out a thrilling 2-2 draw. Two fine free-kicks wore scored that game; SΓ‘ Pinto curled in the opener in the first half but Roberto Carlos' free-kick in the early stages of the second half was different gravy.
Against Peter Schmeichel, one of the greatest goalkeepers to ever put on a pair of gloves, Carlos planted an thumping strike into the top corner to make the score 2-1. Granted it didn't quite have the ridiculous swerve that his most famous free-kick against France in 1997 had, but the power generated and the ability to get such incredible dip from the distance is absolutely stunning.
Here are the highlights from the fixture, fast forward to around 3 minutes in to see Carlos nearly break the net with his deadly left peg.
Advert
Let's see what tonight's match has in store for us....
Featured Image Credit:Topics:Β Football, Sporting, Champions League, Roberto Carlos, Real Madrid