Without wanting to tempt fate, Manchester City versus Real Madrid on Wednesday should bring drama and skill in equal measure if their recent meetings are anything to go by.
That rivalry is very much a modern one — this will be their 12th Champions League meeting since 2012 — and hopefully, we will see the same level of entertainment in the quarter-final second leg, with the tie level at 3-3.
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Rivalries that regularly bring us great contests can focus on the managers’ characters, the star players, or a controversial moment from a previous match. Whatever it is, they can be time-limited or enduring. Manchester United vs Arsenal, for example, would often decide the destination of the Premier League title while Liverpool and Newcastle, for a while, seemed to only deal in 4-3 matches. As for Argentina vs England as an international match, that has history and “previous” baked in.
With this in mind, we asked some of our writers for their favourite rivalries that at one time or another guaranteed an exciting game. Feel free to add yours to the comment section below.
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Manchester United and Arsenal
For those who didn’t live through it, it is hard to explain the extent to which this rivalry dominated and defined the Premier League landscape in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
They were not just the best teams in the country, battling each other for the biggest prizes. They hated each other: Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger; Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira; Gary Neville and Robert Pires; Ruud van Nistelrooy and Martin Keown.
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Sparks flew. Punches flew. Even pizzas flew, for goodness’ sake. There were moments of brilliance: Ryan Giggs’ solo goal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park, Thierry Henry’s audacious shot on the turn in 2000.
And the unsavoury stuff — so many red cards, so many brawls and FA charges, the ‘Battle of Old Trafford’ in September 2003, the so-called ‘Battle of the Buffet’ in October 2004, Keane’s ‘I’ll see you out there’ exchange with Vieira in the Highbury tunnel in February 2005 — just added to the drama.
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Some of what happened — the challenges on the pitch, the various flare-ups in the tunnel, the barbs traded in the managers’ press conferences — crossed the line, but the rivalry came with an intensity and a ferocity unrivalled in the Premier League in the two decades since. At times, it was borderline toxic. Goodness only knows how it will play on social media if the Premier League ever gets another rivalry as deeply antagonistic as that.
Oli Kay
Real Madrid and Barcelona
“When Madrid plays Barcelona, the world stops,” said Jose Mourinho in 2012 — and for once, this was not hyperbole from the then-Real Madrid coach.
For over a decade, El Clasico was the biggest game in football, as teams packed with superstar individuals clashed in a series of thrillers.
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There were hammerings like the 6-2 win for Pep Guardiola’s Barca at the Bernabeu late in February 2009, and the 5-0 defeat for Mourinho’s Madrid at Camp Nou in November 2010.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s “calm down” gesture to the Camp Nou after hitting a title-winning goal in April 2012 was iconic. As was Lionel Messi removing his jersey to show his name to the Bernabeu crowd after his 92nd-minute winner in April 2017.
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Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Iker Casillas, Luis Suarez, Neymar and Karim Benzema all had their unforgettable moments too.
Recent years have also brought drama — and Sunday at the Bernabeu probably will again — but El Clasico’s golden age was unmatchable.
Dermot Corrigan
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid
Bayern Munich against Real Madrid has been a supercharged duel of continental heavyweights since the tie’s first iteration in 1976, a European Cup semi-final that saw Madrid striker Roberto Martinez clash with Bayern keeper Sepp Maier and a Madrid supporter punch the referee in the Spanish capital.
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A 9-1 friendly humiliation of the Spaniards in Munich (1980) and Bayern leaving the pitch in protest after a flurry of red cards in the Trofeo Santiago Bernabeu (1981) further fuelled the animosity before Juanita was sent off for kicking Lothar Matthaus in the head in the 1987 European Cup semi-final and Hugo Sanchez left a stud mark of Jean-Marie Pfaff’s rib cage in the return leg. Real Madrid took revenge by winning the next meeting in the quarter-finals a year later.
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Hostilities resumed and intensified over a stretch of seven years that pitted galactico-era Madrid against the German record title holders no fewer than 10 times. Bayern boss Uli Hoeness belittled the Spanish rivals as “a circus” while Oliver Kahn turned from hero (2001 semi-final) to villain (2004 round of 16, a big mistake) and refused to swap shirts with Casillas. Former Barcelona midfielder Mark van Bommel endeared himself to the Bernabeu crowd with a rude gesture in 2007.
Following a German penalty-shootout win in the 2012 Champions League semi-final, Madrid have come out on top three times in a row — with Cristiano Ronaldo as Bayern’s chief nemesis (seven goals) — and cast doubt on the Bavarians still being Madrid’s “bestia negra” these days.
Raphael Honigstein
England and Argentina
There have only been five competitive meetings between England and Argentina and yet there have been many iconic moments.
This fixture brought us both the goal of the century and an act of grand larceny. In the same game. By the same irrepressible player.
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The Hand of God may tarnish Diego Maradona’s legacy in the English football consciousness — and especially in Peter Shilton’s — but the majesty of his other goal four minutes later should be the abiding memory of one of the greatest ever.
Maradona’s antics only reinforced the impression among English minds that Argentina would stop at nothing to win, established in 1966 after the tempestuous World Cup quarter-final when Sir Alf Ramsey prevented his players from exchanging shirts with “animals”.
And yet David Beckham only had himself to blame for his sending-off in the 1998 World Cup last 16, even if Diego Simeone went down a little easily. That and Michael Owen’s mesmerising individual goal made for an epic in Saint-Etienne, if also another dramatic English exit on penalties.
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England’s narrow group-stage victory in Sapporo four years later was not quite as good a game or as noteworthy an occasion, yet Beckham’s winning penalty nevertheless provided a moment of not only personal but national catharsis.
Even in their last meeting, on suitably neutral ground in Switzerland, two late Owen goals earned England a dramatic 3-2 win in one of the more entertaining international friendlies in recent memory.
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That is coming up to 20 years ago now. It is a rivalry enhanced by its rarity, yet it is still a shame that it has not been renewed since.
Mark Critchley
Liverpool and Newcastle
Liverpool have played Newcastle 58 times in the Premier League era and there has been just one 0-0 draw.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that was in the 2020-21 season — during the pandemic — when the gates of St James’ Park were locked, and nothing made sense.
This is a fixture that almost guarantees goals. It has a capacity to deliver entertainment, occasionally knife-edge stuff. Yet it tends not to deliver Newcastle wins.
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Of Newcastle’s 11 wins, only one has been at Anfield — and that was the first, in 1994, when Rob Lee and Andy Cole struck for the visiting team in a 2-0 success.
What followed a few years later was a sequence of 4-3 victories for Liverpool secured late in each of the games where the momentum swung from one team to the other.
These encounters contributed enormously to the brand the Premier League was building.
Though the malaise under owner Mike Ashley meant Newcastle contributed less to these occasions for a long time, each of the last four meetings has brought three points for Liverpool, but also the sort of unscripted drama associated with the mid-1990s.
Simon Hughes
Chelsea and Barcelona
Expensive few words , but still a disgrace though 😅 https://t.co/OPfFrlxlhR
— Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) May 6, 2021
Chelsea and Barcelona faced each other four times in the knockout stages of the Champions League between 2005 and 2012.
The most iconic incident happened after the full-time whistle of their 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in May 2009. Andres Iniesta’s strike in stoppage time sent Barcelona through to the final, where they beat Manchester United 2-0 in Rome. Didier Drogba, unhappy with a few contentious refereeing decisions, grabbed the nearest camera and screamed, “It’s a f****** disgrace!” The forward was slapped with a six-game ban and a hefty fine.
Fernando Torres earned Chelsea revenge three years later when he rounded Victor Valdes in Camp Nou, prompting a bizarre noise from Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, and secured them a place in the 2012 final which they won on penalties against Bayern Munich.
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Ronaldinho had a habit of producing ridiculous goals in these games too. It would be rude not to mention the Brazilian’s ingenious effort with his toe that left Petr Cech stranded in 2005 and his mazy dribble past three players a year later.
Mourinho’s mind games from the touchline only added to the sense of pageantry.
Jay Harris
USWNT and Sweden
The U.S. women’s national team has dominated women’s soccer for decades. Until this most recent run of international tournaments, they were the team to beat. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had their fair share of historic foes — from Norway and China around the turn of the millennium to the emergence of Marta and Brazil. However, there’s one team they’ve played more than any other on the game’s biggest stage in games that always deliver.
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Last summer, Sweden delivered heartache to the U.S. via mere millimeters in the 2023 Women’s World Cup round of 16 when they defeated the four-time champions in a penalty kick shootout. It was the seventh time the two teams met on the world stage, the most played matchup in women’s tournament history. It was also the 10th meeting of the two sides at a major tournament.
What makes a rivalry is its balance. While the USWNT has the overall advantage (6-1-3), Sweden has won the last three – twice knocking the U.S. out of a major competition, twice in penalty kicks, twice as the USWNT’s earliest exit. In 2016, Hope Solo called Sweden “cowards.” In 2023, Sweden celebrated Lina Hurtig’s winning goal by zooming in on the computer-generated review.
Emily Olsen
(Top photos: Getty Images)