It’s not a secret that football is a passionate sport and that passion takes us to be very intense with our team. Just like we love our favorite club with a huge passion, it’s almost mandatory to dislike our biggest rival with the same intensity. There are plenty of rivalries around the world, starting from teams that were created as an act of revenge, suspicious matches that led to the creation of rivalries and even due to political and religious reasons.There are plenty of stories surrounding the best derbies in the world, and this time we’re going to introduce you to some of the biggest ones you can find on the planet. These are the top 10 biggest rivalries in football history.
                                                                                   10. Roma vs. Lazio

You can’t talk about rivalries without mentioning this one, which is one of the most intense not only in Italian football but the rest of the world. Roma-Lazio, the “Derby della Capitale”, is a very fierce rivalry that has shown the bad blood there are between these two sides in more than one occasion. Players, fans, coaches and even directives know that this game is live very differently.To know the origin of this great enmity, we have to go back to 1927, when Benito Mussolini decided to create a unified team in Roma so he could dare the teams from the North (Milan, Inter, and Juventus). That’s how the AS Roma was born thanks to several clubs from the city. However, there was one squad who didn’t want to be unified, the Lazio, and they managed to not do so thanks to the influence of a fascist general.That served to create one of the biggest and hottest rivalries football has nowadays, as every match between these two sides is always full of drama, intensity and more, both on the pitch and stands, where violence has made his appearances more than once throughout history.
                                                                                                 9. Internazionale vs. Milan



Another derby between city neighbors. We just watched Roma and Lazio and now is time to go to the North of Italy, where we find the Derby della Madonnina, played by two of the biggest three teams in Italy, Internazionale, and Milan. This bad blood started eight years after Milan was founded, as some misunderstandings regarding the signing of international players led to the separation of some directives from the club, who later would go to create Internazionale.Ever since that, there has been anything but love from these two clubs, as their clashes are always tense given the history they have shared. Their head-to-head record is very close, with Inter winning 80 times, while Milan has collected 77 wins over the course of history. As for the titles, they are very close from one another, too, They have both won 18 league titles; in the Coppa Italia, it is Inter who edge their rivals with seven to five titles.In Champions League, nobody except Real Madrid has won more titles than Milan, who has seven right now, while Inter counts with three. This is not some disadvantage derby, this is a rivalry between two giants who even though aren’t having their best times, are on the verge to be the great squads they used to be.
                                                                                       8. Liverpool vs. Manchester United



England has a lot of derbies, they can be regional, between two teams from the same city and clubs that have won several awards. However, the Liverpool-Manchester United rivalry is one of the bests in the United Kingdom alongside the Old Firm, as it faces the most successful clubs in English football, Liverpool and Manchester United. This game is so important that they’re considered more crucial than the ones these two have with Everton and Manchester City, respectively.The proximity of the cities these two represent the historic economic and industrial rivalry add more things to an already bitter derby. Plus they have dominated domestic football, have had European success, and huge popularity both in England and abroad as two of the most successful and widely supported football clubs in the worldIn 202 meetings, Liverpool has won 66 games for 56 draws and 80 wins in favor of Manchester United. In combination, they have collected 38 league titles, 8 European Cups, 4 UEFA Cups, 4 UEFA Super Cups, 19 FA Cups, 13 League Cups, 1 FIFA Club World Cup, 1 Intercontinental Cup and 36 FA Community Shields.
                                                                                      7. Olympiakos vs. Panathinaikos



Greece is not exempt from having one of the biggest rivalries in the world as they introduced the Derby of the eternal enemies to the globe. Olympiakos and Panathinaikos are the two most important clubs in Greece and the starring of this game, who has taken things a little too far sometimes.Just like several rivalries in the world, both teams come from a different background and started to attract very different types of supporters. Panathinaikos was founded in 1908 and was considered the representative of the high class while Olympiakos was founded in 1925 in Piraeus port, going to represent the working class of Athens. Right now their fans aren’t just from the mentioned groups, as they have extended their fanbases.The last game of this derby serves as proof of how intense it is. The match was suspended due to incidents between ultras and police at the 70th minute of the encounter When chemicals used outside the stadium made the referee stop the game.
                                                                                    6. Galatasaray vs. Fenerbahce



his rivalry is a very bitter one and has been earning a bigger reputation in recent years after all the things that have taken place both on the pitch and the stands. The Intercontinental Derby is played by Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, the maximum winners in Turkish football history. This game is surrounded by an intensity and a curious history that would have been very different today; at the beginning of the 20th century, these teams were about to merge and become one total Turkish side.Due to the Balkan War that never could happen and today, we have one of the best derbies in football. Back in 1934 unexpected riots marked the beginning of this derby since players from both teams started to play very roughly, with hard fouls. All this tension went from the pitch to the stands and at the end, the game was finished when the ref decided to leave the field with the players going into fights. Nothing was the same after that day.Throughout 110 years of history, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce have played 388 times, with the Lions winning 146 games for 119 draws and 123 victories for Galatasaray.
                                                                                                    5. Celtic vs. Rangers


The Old Firm has a deeper background than just a sporting rival and you can tell that by how different these teams are. Their differences have reflected, and contributed to political, social, and religious division and sectarianism in their country, gaining more and more popularity around the world seeing the way this derby has been developed and played until our days.Everything started with a series of complex disputes, not just a sporting one; sometimes based on religion (Catholic and Protestant), Northern Ireland-related politics (Loyalist and Republican), national identity (British or Irish Scots), and social ideology (Conservatism and Socialism). The fight for being the greatest team in the country only stirs the pot for all these problems to surface and demonstrate the hate these two teams have for each other.In combination, the two clubs have won 103 Scottish League championships (Rangers 54 and Celtic 49), 71 Scottish Cups, and 45 Scottish League Cups.





#BONUS 
                                                        LEVSKI vs CSKA



The Eternal Derby of Bulgarian Football or simply The Eternal Derby is the name of the local derby football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulgaria: PFC LEVSKI SOFIA and PFC CSKA SOFIA. The clubs have won 26 and 31 national championship titles and 25 and 20 Bulgarian Cup titles, respectively.The rivalry started in the late 1940s when the newly founded club of CSKA became a champion in their first year in competitive football in 1948. Both the 1948–49 and 1950 seasons ended with the two teams facing each other in Soviet army Cup finals with Levski Sofia winning on both occasions after extra time of the second final replay, as the previous two final matches had finished as draws.During the years, as the two teams became more and more successful, they gained large supporter bases. The confrontations between the clubs and their fans became commonplace and often resulted in tense encounters on the pitch and hooligan clashes between the fans off the pitch.The hostility reached its climax on 19 June 1985 during the Bulgarian Cup final held at Vasil Levski  National Stadium when, after many disputable referee decisions, both teams demonstrated poor sportsmanship which resulted in regular fights between them on the pitch. On 21 June, the Central Comitette of the Bulgarian Communist Party issued a decree that disbanded both teams. CSKA Septemvriysko zname had to be re-founded as Sredets and Levski-Spartak as Vitosha. Six players (including Hristo Stoichkov and Borislav Mikhailov) were banned for life from playing competitive football; many other players and staff members were banned for three months to one year. A year later, the decision was abolished and the players continued their sport careers.                                                                 






                                                                                                  To be Continued