the 1986 final had given a taste of what was to come in the uefa super cup (it was played as a one-off game at monaco's stade louis ii), but the tournament reverted to its customary two-legged, home-and-away format for the 1987 edition.
porto went into the match as european champions, having won the european champion clubs' cup thanks to a 2-1 win against fc bayern münchen at the prater stadium in vienna. their opponents in the uefa super cup were veterans of the competition, afc ajax, who had appeared in the first edition and earned another chance to claim the crown thanks to marco van basten's winner against 1. fc lokomotive leipzig in the uefa cup winners' cup final the previous may.
ajax boasted several members of the netherlands squad that would go on to win the 1988 uefa european championship, but it was to be porto who stole the show over two legs.
rui barros scored the only goal of the first leg in amsterdam after five minutes on 24 november 1987.
the second leg took place almost two months later at the das antas stadium in porto, but despite the presence of a young dennis bergkamp in their starting xi, ajax could not turn the tide. antónio sousa scored 20 minutes from time to seal a 2-0 aggregate win for porto.
