The last time Monaco and Juventus met in the Champions League semi-finals, it proved to be a classic tie.
The Bianconeri were looking to reach the final for the third season in row, but faced a formidable side led by Jean Tigana.
The Monegasques boasted the likes of David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry, Fabien Barthez and Willy Sagnol; three of whom would go on to win the World Cup with France that summer.
The last time Monaco and Juventus met in the Champions League semi-finals, it proved to be a classic tie.
The Bianconeri were looking to reach the final for the third season in row, but faced a formidable side led by Jean Tigana.
The Monegasques boasted the likes of David Trezeguet, Thierry Henry, Fabien Barthez and Willy Sagnol; three of whom would go on to win the World Cup with France that summer.
In addition, both Trezeguet and Henry would later play for the Old Lady, though the latter didn’t have the same impact in Turin that he so famously did at Arsenal.
The first leg brought a crushing win for Juve in Turin, inspired by a stunning display from Alessandro Del Piero.
With 35 minutes on the clock, the forward opened the scoring with a stunning free-kick.
Standing around 25 yards out, slightly to the left, ‘Pinturicchio’ lifted the ball over the wall and into the top corner, Barthez only able to get a faint touch on it just as it crossed the line.
The Ligue 1 side drew level on 42 minutes, defensive midfielder Costinha’s deflected effort beating Angelo Peruzzi after a corner.
On the stroke of half-time though, Zidane was brought down by Barthez in the area and Del Piero smashed the resulting penalty into the top corner.
Del Piero added another from the spot in the second half, before a fantastic combination with Zidane for the fourth.
Edgar Davids found ‘Zizou’ from a throw-in, and the Frenchman slipped the ball between two players to find the Juve number 10.
Del Piero laid it back to him, and Zidane took a touch to take the ball out of his feet before curling a low strike into the net.
Two weeks later in Monaco, Nicola Amoruso looked to have killed the tie when he tapped the ball in from Del Piero’s cross after 15 minutes.
However, a Philippe Léonard free-kick deflected in off Antonio Conte’s backside, and Thierry Henry linked one over Peruzzi to give the hosts some cause to hope.
There was no stopping Del Piero though, and he put the tie to bed with a stunning right-footed volley which took the slightest of deflections off Lilian Martin.
Substitute Robert Spehar added a late winner, but it was mere consolation for Monaco as the Bianconeri advanced to the final.
Del Piero’s performances over the two legs brought rapturous praise from the Italian Press.
“There’s no point hiding the fact – he’s the best player in the world,” Tuttosport declared. “Better than Ronaldo. Better than all of them. Spectacular.”
La Stampa meanwhile described him as Juventus’ “magic boy”, while Gazzetta dello Sport dubbed him “Alessandro the dominator”.