Today's Top Five Rivalries in Football
Every football fan who truly lives and dies with his or her chosen team knows that love and hate are always present in this world.
The love a supporter feels towards that club foments the hate and hard feelings against that team's historical rival.
Emotions run high, and even a meaningless match in the standings becomes a must-win, and alongside with the hostile atmosphere, it seems to never ever reach an end.
Everyone's got a list of top rivalries and none of them are wrong.
So, let's add one more. Here are five derbies that take a back seat to no one:
5. Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce
They call this the Eternal Rivalry, which speaks for itself.
It made this list mostly due to the totally mad atmosphere from both sides. They literally hate each other, and although it's not as well-known internationally, this match always brings the entire city of Istanbul to a halt.
4. Celtics vs Rangers
The Old Firm splits the city of Glasgow along heated lines. It represents much more than only football, as it's also been traditionally linked with the schism between Catholics and Protestants.
One crazy example of this happened in 1989 when Rangers signed Maurice Johnson, a Catholic player. Season tickets were cancelled, old cultural wounds flared, and a 24-hour security detail was required to ensure Johnson's safety. Some may protest to the contrary, but this outdated issue still isn't over.
Due to unrelated financial malfeasance in later years, the club has since endured the indignity of bankruptcy and a subsequent penalty of relegation to the lowest division in Scotland.
They're now back in the top flight, and that 1-0 Celtics victory over the Rangers in the Scottish Cup Final looked like a war afterward.
3. Liverpool vs Manchester United
The luster's come off this derby in recent times, but it's still one where fans circle dates on calendars.
Reds against Red Devils was once the ultimate in a clash of titans, but then Sir Alex Ferguson happened and United started to win everything while The 'Pool ran out of gas. To this day, though, the old Scot's still feisty about it.
Nowadays, United are the most successful club in England when it comes to domestic competitions. Whereas, when the subject is international competition, Liverpool is still the England's royalty on the continent.
2. Boca Juniors vs River Plate
Latin passion can run hot in a heartbeat, and no one needs to look and listen further than to the tales of when these two Argentinian giants collide.
El Superclásico is literally always on fire, and here's the perfect example: Boca and Rivers were playing for the round of 16 for the 2015 Copa Libertadores – the UCL's equivalent in South America – and due to Boca fans attacking River players with pepper sprays, the match was never completed.
As a result, CONMEBOL -- the UEFA equivalent -- decided Boca should be disqualified. To make things worse, Juniors watched from their homes as River bagged the Copa.
1. Real Madrid vs Barcelona
Two of the most powerful and successful clubs in modern football have made El Clásico the game that garners worldwide attention these days, mostly because of the clashes between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The appetite for this derby is such that they're even in demand to play international friendlies against each other.
The irony here is that before the two GOATS mentioned above made appearances on the scene, the rivalry between these giants was never more intense than after after the Luis Figo transfer, where he betrayed Barcelona to go to Los Merengues.
'Way back in the day, like in 1780, the 12th Earl of Derby founded a local horse race in his name that by the 1840s came to mean any local sporting contest.
And now, the morphication is complete. In football, it's two clubs creating sparks whenever they meet.
And these five derbies generate enough to light up the entire football world.