GLASGOW’S Old Firm derby has been named second in a list of world football’s top rivalries.

Seeing Celtic and Rangers go head to head is a fixture which has been the most talked about fixture in Scottish football for generations as the top two club’s in the country battle it out.

Despite Rangers playing in a different division from their city rivals since 2012, the intensity between supporters has not diminished, a fact that was underlined when the pair met at Hampden earlier this year in a League Cup semi-final that Celtic won 2-0.

And the famous derby has now been recognised as one of the game’s top clashes by World Soccer magazine.

In the definitive list, 50 rivalries are detailed with Celtic v Rangers coming second only to the fiery battle contested between AC Milan and Inter.

Supporters at a Old Firm clash at Ibrox with police watching on

It means the Old Firm appear before River Plate v Boca Juniors who play in the Superclasico in Argentina, Portugal’s Benfica v Porto, Roma v Lazio, Ajax v Feyenoord, Liverpool and Manchester United and even the El Clasico between Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The list also extends to international football with Scotland’s two big guns coming in ahead of South Korea v Japan, Argentina v Brazil and Scotland v England.

The magazine also stirs up controversy in their brief description of the Old Firm fixture, writing: “Depending on your view, the Scottish League Cup semi-final meeting between the pair in January 2015 – the first since Rangers were demoted to the bottom tier in 2012 – was either the 400th games between the ‘old firm’ or the first meeting of Celtic and the ‘new’ Rangers.

“Which means it’s either 159-145 to the blue half of Glasgow, or 1-0 to the greens.”