IT was a lesson with a difference for pupils at Bexley’s Russian school.

The students from the South East Russian Language School (SERLS) Friendship, based in West Street, Erith, were taken out of the classroom and off to Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge ground.

They were there to learn about one of the most historic post-war football matches, played between Chelsea and Moscow Dynamo.

The match was played at Stamford Bridge in November 1945, just after the end of the Second World War, when the Russian champions were on their first ever British tour.

Their match against Chelsea was the first of their four tour matches in the UK.

After seven years of war, the game caused huge excitement and everyone wanted to see the match.

More than 85,000 people turned out, filling the stadium right up to the touchline and overflowing onto the roof of the main stand.

Others scrambled onto railway walls and the roofs of surrounding buildings to catch a glimpse of the game.

The match ended in a 3-3 draw.

The SERLS Friendship pupils learned about the game, its significance and its background of wartime London, from Peter Daniel from the Westminster Archives.

Afterwards they were invited on a tour of the club, including Chelsea’s own museum and a walk out onto the pitch.