On Monday the world watched as Barcelona destroyed Real Madrid in El Clasico. Although classed as the Spanish derby due to the obvious histories, rivalries, successes, quality of players and squads.
Geographically in football terms, its not actually a legitimate derby within Spain. So which are the legitimate derbies, and who has the best around?
In Spain, as mentioned before Barca and Real are not actually city rivals.
Barcelona’s city rivals are Espanyol, although now the derby is less serious, it used to be massive as Barcelona always classed themselves as “Catalans” and Espanyols name translates into Spanish, it was effectively a game of Catalan v Spain.
In recent years Espanyol has struggled in this fixture winning 1 out of the last 17, the rivalry was also eased when Espanyol translated its official name and anthem from Spanish to Catalan.
In the capital city of Madrid, Atletico have always had to play catch up, recent years have seen Real dominate the derbies with Atletico’s last win coming in the season 1999-2000.
Atletico’s only time of pride over Real was in 1996 when they won the league and cup double. They however will always have a fierce rivalry as Real are considered to have the upper class fans and Atletico the working class fans from the south of the city.
Spain’s most fiercest rivalry is that of Seville v Real Betis. with both being relegated in the last 20 odds years (Betis are currently in the Spanish 2nd division) the rivalry has always been at fever pitch.
Each teams relegation was cheered on the streets of Seville by the other team, which caused riots on each occasion.
The derby has often been marred with violence and even deaths. the 2007 Copa del Rey match was suspended when then Seville manager Juande Ramos was struck with a bottle, it was re-played 3 weeks later in Getafe with no supporters.
In England, the Liverpool v Everton derby used to be called the “Friendly derby” with many households in Liverpool divided with red and blue.
The golden era for this derby was the 80s where both teams won the league, (Liverpool 9 times Everton 2 times). And were successful in Europe, Liverpool 2 European cup wins in 81 & 84, and Everton winning the cup winners cup in 1985.
Everton also won the FA Cup in 84 while Liverpool won it twice in 86 & 89 beating Everton in both finals.
In recent years, although the rivalry has become less friendly (the most red cards in a English derby in the last decade) the decline of both clubs have made this derby less important to the history of the English game.
With Manchester City’s recent influx of money and world class players, the Manchester derby has elevated into the important bracket of English league derbies.
City has only been back in the top league since 2002, so United’s success has always overshadowed their city rivals. Since City has been back in the top flight United have
dominated the results. However the most memorable derby was in the last game of the 73-74 season.
Former red legand Dennis Law scored a back heel goal which gave City a 1-0 win, United were relagated. (though United would have been relegated even if it ended a draw).
In the last few derbies, Man Utd has still had the slight edge but they have been extremely close. I’m sure with City’s new money this derby will have a fair few stories to tell in the near future.
England’s closest the most intense rivalry in recent years is Arsenal V Tottenham. Not only because they are a mere 4 miles apart, or because both sets of supporters have genuine hate for each other.
But both have had some success over the other in recent years. Arsenal have been the more successful trophy wise but have not won a trophy since 05. The season before that they won the league without losing a game.
Tottenham won the League cup in 08 but nothing else for a decade. Probably the most famous game between these two was the 1991 FA Cup semi at Wembley, when Gascoigne scored a stunning free-kick on the way to a 3-1 victory.
They went on to win the cup. Arsenal however got their revenge 2 years later at the same venue winning 1-0 and also going on to win the trophy.
In 2004, the season Arsenal went unbeaten, they won the league at Tottenham’s ground with a 2-2 draw emulating a feat they did with a 0-1 win in 1971.
However in 08 Spurs claimed their first victory over Arsenal since 1999 with a emphatic 5-1 win in the league cup semi final 2nd leg. This season Spurs claimed their first win at Arsenal’s home ground for 17 years with a great 3-2 win from being 2-0 down.
With Spurs now in the Champions League, this rivalry is sure to be go up a further few notches in the coming seasons.
In Italy, the Italian derby is considered to be Juventus V Inter. This is the oldest and longest running game between two Italian sides, as they are the only two teams never to be relegated in the Italian league.
Juventus’s city and stadium rivals are Torino. Although city wise they have a big rivalry, due to Torino’s lack of success and notoriety it has never really gripped the nation outside the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin.
The Milan derby however is huge. AC Milan were founded by English immigrants who only wanted English men to play for them, being in Italy some members disagreed with this and Inter was born.
Although overall Milan seemed to be the more successful team, especially with a record 7 European cup wins. Inter’s recent league success (5 league titles in a row) has given them 18 league titles surpassing Milan on 17.
This seasons cup win was Inter’s 6th in their history, surpassing Milan who are on 5.
Sharing the San Siro since 1949 the rivalry was at its most intense in the 60s when both teams boasted the 2 best players in the country Inter had Sandro Mazzola and Milan had Gianni Rivera.
The rivalry was so intense they would often not play together for the national team.
The rivalry again become intense in the late 80s and early 90s when Milan had the Dutch trio of Marco Van basten, Frank Rijkaard & Ruud Gullit. And Inter had the German trio of Andreas Brehme, Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus.
During this time the rivalry had an extra edge as in 1988 Holland won the European Championship and then Germany won the World cup in 1990. Although Inter’s recent success has re-ignited this rivalry’s intensity, its not considered to be as fierce as it was in previous decades.
This is more to do with the long list of players who have turned out for both clubs which was unheard of before.
Success aside, Italy’s most fiercest rivalry is between Roma & Lazio. Sharing “Stadio Olimpico” this rivalry was born out of huge political differences.
Lazio are right wing while Roma are left wing. Both sets of supporters have been known to unveil derogatory and even racist banners about the other team.
In 2004 a game was abandoned when leaders of Lazio’s Ultra’s came onto the pitch to confront Roma Captain Totti who then asked the match to be abandoned.
Following this, wide spread riots erupted in the stadium with parts of the stadium set on fire while cars and shops outside were set alight, with over 150 police injured.
On the pitch both clubs are reasonably but not the most successful. Roma are slightly more winning the league 3 times, the 3rd came in 2001 the season after Lazio won their second league title. They also have 9 cup wins to Lazio’s 5.
However Roma only have 3 European trophies where Lazio have 5. In the league, Lazio used to have the better of the games from the mid 90s up until the early 2000’s, where Roma won most games until Lazio won in 2006.
Since then the games have been pretty even. This rivalry is and will continue to be as fierce off the pitch as it is on, due to extreme politcal, racial and social views.
