A collection of excellent documentaries on the biggest derby matches and biggest Spanish football rivalries via Copa90.

The Galician Derby

Celta Vigo vs Deportivo La Coruña

Galicia is perhaps the least Spanish part of Spain. With a climate, landscape and even culture that has a Celtic feel, this isolated corner of Iberia is home to two major clubs, who are roughly equal in terms of size and stature. Vigo, home of Celta, is marginally the bigger city and as of 2018-2019, can claim to be the region’s only top flight club. However in terms of silverware, Depor have the edge thanks to a remarkable period where they challenged the Spanish elite around the turn of the century.

The Seville Derby

Sevilla vs Real Betis

This is Spain’s fiercest city derby by some distance. The other major cities in Spain have rivalries that have historically been quite one-sided but not this one. It’s only really over the past 10-15 years that Sevilla have truly emerged as the more successful club with no fewer than 5 Europa League successes giving them a clear edge in terms of success.

However Betis fans will be quick to claim the bigger fanbase and attendances at the Benito Villamarin largely back that up, with the green and white half of Seville averaging some 10,000 more fans per game than their city rivals at the time of writing. They also see themselves as the working class club and this is a derby day were tempers regularly flare both on and off the pitch in arguably Spain’s most passionate football city.

The Madrid Derby

Real Madrid vs Atlético Madrid

For long periods, this was one of those lopsided rivalries we talked about but there are few things Atléti fans enjoy more than getting one over on their illustrious neighbours. In the 2010’s it has been an increasingly important and even fixture with Atlético rising to become a serious European force that has led to two Champions League Final Madrid derbies, both won in dramatic circumstances by Los Blancos. While we’d dispute the notion that this match is bigger than El Clásico, in terms of the quality of the two teams, this is perhaps now the premier city derby in world football.

Read more – Madrid Football Guide

El Clásico

Barcelona vs Real Madrid

This one doesn’t really need any introduction. It would be silly to even try and summarise the complexities and politics of the Clásico into a short paragraph but it’s safe to say that this remains the biggest game in world football featuring the two biggest clubs on the planet. Unlike many major rivalries and derby matches, the action normally lives up to the hype with attacking football, sublime skill and several goals usually guaranteed. Tickets for this fixture don’t come cheap but if there’s one game you want to experience in your lifetime, it’s surely this one.

Derbi de la Comunitat

Valencia vs Villarreal

For basically the entire 20th Century, Valencia basically had things all their own way in their region of Spain. While city rivals Levante have become a more regular top flight fixture in recent years, regional neighbours Villarreal have been the team to really emerge as their main 21st Century rivals in the Valencian Community. The Yellow Submarine has risen from virtually nowhere, admittedly with the help of some significant financial backing, to take the fight to Valencia, regularly finishing above and beating their big city neighbours.

The Asturian Derby

Real Oviedo vs Sporting Gijon

Another of Spain’s most ferocious rivalries takes place in Asturias, a small but incredibly picturesque region of Northern Spain. Gijon and Oviedo are just 30km apart, which certainly adds to the spice in a country where many ‘local’ derbies involve teams that are actually fairly distant neighbours by the standards of most European countries. A bit like the Galician derby, fans of Sporting Gijon and Real Oviedo are both proud to be Asturian but when derby day comes, passions rise and the battle to be the pride of Asturias can spill over into the streets with violent clashes between rival groups common.

Mallorca Derby

Real Mallorca v Atlético Baleares

A bit of an odd one this given this was a derby that effectively disappeared with Real Mallorca four tiers above Atlético Baleares as recently as 2006. However with the former hitting hard times in recent years, the Mallorca derby returned as a league fixture for the first time in 37 years in the 2017/18 campaign. Many associate Mallorca as little more than a holiday island but its biggest city Palma, where both clubs are based, is a proper town with passionate football fans. Who knows when this derby will be back after Real Mallorca returned to the Segunda Division at the first attempt but it’s a good example of one of the quirkier local rivalries that are a regular feature in Spain’s regionalised third tier.

Spanish Football Derbies – The Best of the Rest

There are plenty of honourable mentions, not least from the Basque Country where Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad face off in the biggest of the Basque derbies. It’s unique in that opposing fans actually get along pretty well with a shared sense of Basque identity a unifying factor.

The Barcelona derby is another regular top flight rivalry and can be a very heated affair although its one sided nature with FC Barcelona invariably beating Espanyol makes it less interesting than some of the others.

The South Madrid derby between Getafe and Leganes is a relatively new addition to the top flight and while the clubs are small, there is no love lost between the two sets of fans.

Andalusia, Spain’s largest autonomous region by population and second largest by size also has some heated rivalries aside from the Seville derby. Granada vs Malaga is another big fixture while Malaga’s clash with Sevilla is another between two clubs who don’t like each other very much with regional pride on the line.

There are loads more smaller derbies we could mention but we hope you’ve enjoyed this feature on Spanish football rivalries and especially the excellent Copa90 documentaries.

Featured Image By Joxemai – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link