In April, Real Madrid‘s president and the big brain behind the European Super League, Florentino Perez, declared that Champions League games up until the quarter-final stage were effectively a waste of time and an inconvenience to his great club.

Or words to that effect. Less than six months later, a stony-faced Perez watched on as the mighty Real Madrid were humbled by FC Sheriff Tiraspol, the perennial champions of Moldova, at the Bernabeu in one of the greatest shocks in European Cup history.

Sheriff, making only their second appearance in the Champions League proper, had to ride their luck at times with AEK Athens loanee Georgios Athanasiadis having a game that goalkeepers usually can only dream about to keep Karim Benzema and co at bay.

After Benzema finally cancelled out Uzbekistan winger Jasurbek Yakhshiboev’s opener, the result looked like a foregone conclusion. That’s until Luxembourg international Sebastien Thill hammered an unstoppable half volley into the top corner in the 89th minute to seal an improbable victory for the visitors.

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On a night in which Lionel Messi scored his first goal in PSG colours in the most quintessential Lionel Messi way imaginable against Manchester City, it was the minnows from Moldova, Sheriff who stole the headlines.

So who are they and where exactly have they come from?

The football club has been going for 24 years after being founded by a former policeman, Viktor Gushan, who as the story goes, is an ex-KGB officer. The name Sheriff, meanwhile, comes from the company created by Gushan and his colleague Ilya Kazmaly in 1993 that has a monopoly on most things in Transnistria, a breakaway state that sits on Moldova’s border with Ukraine, where the club is situated. Sheriff’s name is plastered on

petrol stations, supermarkets, a restaurant and hotel complex, a medical centre, the largest telecommunications operator in the region, a construction company, a car dealership, a TV channel and a spirits manufacturer, among countless other things.

With the company’s clout behind them, FC Sheriff have a clear financial advantage over their rivals. They have won 19 of the previous 21 Moldova Divizia Nationala titles and have a state-of-the-art $200m (£154m) stadium while their league rivals play in dilapidated grounds rented from the local authorities.

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