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TIRASPOL. — The tiny de facto republic of Trans-Dniester — sometimes known as Transnistria — is a place frozen in time.

In its capital Tiraspol, the hammer and sickle motif of the former USSR, is proudly displayed on billboards and government buildings.

A huge statue of Lenin looks on from a plinth, outside parliament, a mark of the pride and nostalgia the city feels for its Soviet past.

But, on Wednesday night it took a giant stride towards its future.

The city’s football club, FC Sheriff Tiraspol, qualified for the Champions League group stage for the very first time with a play-off victory against Dinamo Zagreb in August.

Their reward was a draw that will see them welcome Real Madrid and Inter Milan to Tiraspol.

They beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 in their first group match, on Wednesday.

If it marks new ground for Sheriff, elite European football will be stepping into the unknown too.

It is the first time the Champions League has been played in one of Europe’s de facto republics.

In international law, Trans-Dniester, a thin sliver of land on the border with Ukraine, belongs to the Republic of Moldova, a country formed in 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing.

In 1992, after a war in which close to a thousand people were killed, the land east of Moldova’s Dniester river seceded to form a self-declared new state, which largely remains unrecognised, by the international community.

Trans-Dniester takes its ‘independence’ from Moldova seriously.

It uses its own currency, the Trans-Dniestrian rouble, which cannot be obtained or exchanged anywhere else in the world, and which sits outside the international banking system.

In Tiraspol, phone signals from Moldova don’t register, despite the “border” being only 20km away.

The Champions League debutants have played in Moldova’s football league since 1999.

While the rest of the top division play on sports pitches, rented from municipal authorities, Sheriff’s home is a specially constructed US$200m (£154m) arena on the outskirts of Tiraspol.

They have won 20 of the 22 league titles they have contested.

Sheriff have rarely relied much on local talent, but a recent relaxation in the Football Federation of Moldova’s regulations regarding homegrown quotas has freed the club up to pack out their squad with signings from abroad.

Their Champions League squad features players from Malawi, Trinidad & Tobago, Uzbekistan, Ghana, Brazil, Luxembourg and Peru.

Outside of the capital, football does what it can to soothe the horrors of the past.

In the town of Bendery, just a few kilometres inside the Moldovan border but under Trans-Dniestrian control, a military roadblock manned by khaki-clad soldiers beckons cars to a crawl as they flow in and out of town.

Situated on the banks of the Dniester, this is a city of the crossfire.

Alexandru Guzun was due to play for Bendery club, FC Tighina against FC Constuctorul, the day a simmering conflict broke out into war.

The date was 2 March 1992.

“Can you imagine the shock of arriving in a city you know well and seeing bombs exploding in the streets?” he says.

Guzun was due to meet with his team-mates at a hotel before travelling together to the club’s Dynamo Stadium home ground.

That isn’t the way it worked out.

“The hotel was right on the river. Because of where it is located, with Tiraspol only a few kilometres one way and the Moldovan soldiers coming from the other, we were physically in the middle of the fighting.”

Once inside the hotel, it quickly became clear that there was no way out. With bombs and shells exploding around them, Guzun and his team-mates took the only route open to them — downwards.

FC Sheriff’s power is so entrenched they are unlikely to be surpassed by their impoverished rivals in the Moldovan league any time soon.

Last season’s Divizia Nationala title was wrapped up with 32 wins from the 36 games and just a single defeat, as the team romped home by a 16-point margin.

The hope now is that the Champions League, and the visits of Real and Inter, will inject some much-needed excitement into the predictable spectacle of Sheriff’s annual title processions. — BBC Sport