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Derbies are games between two teams from the same town or city, but these 90 minutes can divide families and friends alike. The winners get bragging rights as usual, while the losers have to live with humiliation and embarrassment, at least until the next game.And this becomes even more difficult when the opposition fans are at your work or your pub or even your own home. That is why losing a derby is not an option, even if the stakes are not high.So what happens when these derby defeats are embarrassing? Surely the fans of the losing side think of it as a nightmare best forgotten, but that is not easy because they will be constantly reminded of the game for years to come.Here, we take a look at the worst derby defeats across Europe since the turn of the new millennium.
#10 Atletico Madrid 1-4 Real Madrid (2012)
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Coming into the game, Atletico had not beaten their city rivals since 1999; that season, they had got relegated. The previous league encounter between the two sides was earlier in the same season and ended in a 4-1 win to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. The return fixture at the Vicente Calderon ended with the same scoreline, but it was far more humiliating as Atletico were taken apart in front of their supporters by some Cristiano Ronaldo magic.
The win was important for Madrid as some of their previous results had cut down their lead at the top of the table from 10 points to just four. And prior to the game, it was reduced to just one after Barcelona won their game on the same game week.
Ronaldo opened the scoring with a brilliant free kick from 36 yards out that swung past Thibaut Courtois in goal. Atletico were given hope in the second half when Radamel Falcao headed in the equalizer. The goal raised the roof of the Calderon as they had dented their arch rival’s title hopes. But the celebrations didn’t last long as Ronaldo sent a brilliant curling effort from outside the box to restore the lead.
Matters became worse when Real were awarded a penalty after Angel Di Maria was fouled, and Ronaldo stepped up to score and complete his hat-trick. The final nail in the coffin was struck by Jose Callejon as Real won the game and kept their four-point lead at the top of the table.
Real Madrid won the title at the end of the season and Atletico had to wait till the final of the Copa del Rey in 2013 to finally beat Real Madrid. But since then, Atletico have now beaten Real Madrid twice at the Bernabeu and once at the Calderon.
#9 Schalke 4-1 Borussia Dortmund (2007)
The Revierderby between FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund is arguably the biggest derby in Germany, considering the competitiveness of both the teams. Both clubs are from the Ruhr region of Germany and have supplied some of the finest players to the German national team.
The game in question is from the 2007/08 season, which was before Jurgen Klopp took over Dortmund. Schalke were looking to extract revenge on their city rivals after Dortmund’s win in their previous encounter ended Schalke’s title hopes.
Schalke’s side that played the game consisted of players like Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer and Rafinha, Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic and Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil. The Dortmund side consisted of players like Mladen Petric, Roman Weidenfeller and Jakub Blaszczykowski.
The home side took the lead through Marcelo Jose Bordon, before Christian Pander and Gerald Asamoah extended the lead. Dortmund pulled one back in the second half through Nelson Valdez, but the lead was restored by former Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi.
The rivalry between the sides grew after this game and in 2008, Dortmund fans even celebrated Schalke not winning a league title in 50 years.
#8 Lazio 1-5 Roma (2002)
The Derby della Capitale is the contest between two of the major football clubs from the capital city of Italy – Rome. The derby is considered to be fiercest, greatest and most hotly contested inter-city rivalry in the country. It is marked by massive crowds, violence and, recently, racist banners in the crowd.
Both teams play their home games in the Stadio Olimpico and during the 2001/02 season, Roma won the first derby of the season 2-0 in their designated home game. The return fixture, where Lazio fans were more in number, was played on 10 March 2002.
Italy and Roma striker Vincenzo Montella scored a hat-trick in the first half by making a joke of one of the best defenders in the game – Alessandro Nesta. Dejan Stankovic scored a consolation goal for Lazio before Montella scored his fourth of the night and thus became the only player to score four goals in a game in the history of the derby.
Francesco Totti then scored the final goal of the game to make it 5-1 to Roma and the Italian revealed a shirt which said ‘6 unica’ meaning ‘you are unique’; the message was dedicated to Ilary Blasi – now his wife.
The game holds the record for the most goals in a Rome derby, a feat which was matched when Lazio won 4-2 in 2009.
#7 Fenerbahce 6-0 Galatasaray (2002)
The rivalry between two of the strongest and most popular Turkish clubs goes by the name Kitlararasi Derbi or the Intercontinental Derby. The derby is called Intercontinental Derby because the two clubs are located on different continents. Galatasaray is located on the European side of Istanbul while Fenerbahce is located on the Asian side. The fixture has been in existence for over a decade now and has developed into an intense and often bitter affair.
Going by the history and the nature of the fixture, it was no surprise that in 2002, the game turned ugly and feisty when these two sides met.
Fenerbahce, nicknamed the Kanaryalar, took the lead in the ninth minute of the game through former Middlesbrough and Stoke City player Tuncay. Argentine Ariel Ortega scored Fenerbahce’s second before half-time but was shown a straight red in the 57th minute of the game.
Galatasaray now had a golden chance to stage a comeback due to their advantage of having an extra man, but Fenerbahce scored three more goals thanks to a brace by Serhat Akin and a goal by Ceyhun Eris. Galatasaray were then reduced to ten men too after Emre Asik was shown a red. Umit Ozat scored the final goal for the home side as they won 6-0.
The result was the second highest margin of victory in the history of the rivalry and the largest in favour of Fenerbahce.
#6 Porto 5-0 Benfica (2010)
Porto and Benfica are the giants of Portuguese football, and these two teams have dominated the league for many years. Both teams are from Lisbon in Portugal and their derby is known as the O Classico. The rivalry between the two sides stems from their political, cultural and sporting history.
The Porto side that played the game consisted of stars like Falcao, Hulk, James Rodriguez, Joao Moutinho and Freddy Guarin (who started the game in place of the injured Fernando; the latter currently plays for Manchester City), while the Benfica side had players like David Luiz, Fabio Coentrao, Javi Garcia, Pablo Aimar, Eduardo Salvio and Nico Gaitan. So when these two teams met in November 2010, a high-intensity game was on the cards.
But Porto ripped into the Benfica side in an incredible first half hour and scored three goals in that period. Hulk’s movement caused a lot of trouble for David Luiz on the left hand side of their defence. Luiz, a centre back by trade, was not at all comfortable in a left-back role and was continually undone by the pace and trickery of Hulk; it was natural that a bulk of the Porto attack would come down that flank. Hulk set up Varela for Porto’s first before a brace from Falcao ended the first half.
To make matters worse for Benfica, Luisao was shown a red card for throwing an elbow at Guarin, and this effectively ended their chances. A mistake from Fabio Coentrao resulted in a penalty which was scored by Hulk, and the Brazilian turned Coentrao inside out to score his second and Porto’s fifth to end the game. All five of Porto’s goals came from their right wing.
Porto went 10 points clear of Benfica at the top of the table and eventually won the league by a margin of 21 points ahead of their cross town rivals.
#5 Inter 0-6 Milan (2001)
Although both teams play their home games at the San Siro, the officiating body assigns home and away criteria for the two teams. And for this game in 2001, Inter were given the home status and their fans were in larger numbers. The result of the game went into the history books for being the biggest margin of victory in the Derby della Madonnina, and it was in favour of AC Milan.
Before the game, both teams were on the same points. But there were no similarities in the performance on the pitch as Milan took apart a very poor Inter side. Gianno Commandini scored twice for Milan in the opening half, before Federico Giunti scored early in the second period.
Andriy Shevchenko then scored a brace before Serginho gave the final touch to hand Inter an embarrassing defeat.
#4 Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal (2014)
The game was Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge of Arsenal, which is a rare managerial feat. But it turned out to be a game to forget for the Frenchman as his side was crushed by his fierce rival Jose Mourinho.
Arsenal went two behind after just seven minutes before an Eden Hazard penalty, in the wake of some bizarre events, put the game out of Arsenal’s reach. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handled Hazard’s shot and parried it out and the Blues were rightfully given a penalty by referee Andre Marriner. But the referee made a blunder by sending off Kieran Gibbs instead of Chamberlain after a case of mistaken identities.
Oscar scored one goal each on either side of the break before substitute Mohamed Salah scored his first goal for Chelsea to put a lid on the proceedings. It was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea who beat Wenger in the latter’s 500th game in charge of Arsenal in 2005, and the Portuguese has now failed to lose to Wenger in 12 games.
Prior to the game, Wenger said that there has been “much suffering” as well as joy since he joined Arsenal in 1996, but watching his team get beaten by Chelsea so convincingly would have hurt him. A distraught Wenger was seen throwing a bottle on the ground after an afternoon he would dearly want to forget.
#3 Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham Hotspur (2012)
More than the margin of victory, it’s the manner in which Tottenham lost the game and the significance of the result that makes it a humiliation for the North London club.
The Spurs had the ascendancy over their fierce rivals Arsenal for much of the season, and a win would have given them back-to-back league triumphs at the home of their arch-rivals for 86 years. They looked on course to achieve this feat after just 34 minutes, as they took a two-goal lead through an early strike from Louis Saha and an Emmanuel Adebayor penalty.
But Arsenal showed brilliant resilience and character to turn the tables around and draw level before going into the half-time break. Sagna headed in Arsenal’s first, and a brilliant curling shot from Robin van Persie for the Gunners’ second ensured that an entertaining second half was on the cards.
Tomas Rosicky then put Arsenal ahead for the first time in the game before a quick brace from Theo Walcott silenced the Tottenham supporters in the stadium as well as his own fans who had taunted him during the first half. Spurs were reduced to 10 men late in the match after Scott Parker was sent off.
The significance of the game was huge as it dented the confidence and momentum of Spurs who had looked on course to finish comfortably in the Top 3, while it gave confidence to Arsenal who were slowly climbing into the Top 4. Had Spurs drawn the game at least, they could have finished above Arsenal for the first time since 1995, but more importantly it would have put them in third position and Arsenal in fourth. The Gunners would then have had to compromise their Champions League spot to Chelsea, who had were the reigning Champions League champions but had finished outside the Top 4 in the league.
Harry Redknapp lost his managerial role with Spurs at the end of the season and funnily enough, Arsenal would go on to beat Spurs by the same score line in the very next game between the two sides.
#2 Liverpool 4-0 Everton (2014)
Liverpool against Everton is the fieriest derby in the Premier League, because no fixture has seen more red cards than the Merseyside Derby.
So when Everton made the short trip to their old home ground Anfield on January 28, 2014, they had one agenda on their mind. The Blues had not beaten their local rivals since October 2010 and haven’t won at Anfield since September 1999. Moreover, the previous three games between the two sides had ended in a draw, with the last of the lot ending in an entertaining 3-3 tie at Goodison Park.
The Reds came into the game without defenders Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho, Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique, thereby making it a difficult game against an attacking Everton side. The home side went a goal up in the 21st minute through a Steven Gerrard header from a Luis Suarez corner. To make matters worse for the Toffees, Gareth Barry injured his team-mate Romelu Lukaku while trying to defend the corner and the Belgian had to be taken off.
Liverpool swiftly doubled their lead through Daniel Sturridge, and the Englishman added a brilliant third after latching on to a quickly taken free kick by Kolo Toure from their own half and lobbing it over an advancing Tim Howard from outside the penalty box. Usual suspect Luis Suarez added the fourth after intercepting the ball following a mistake by Phil Jagielka and racing from his own half to the Everton box, finishing calmly.
The Evertonians were given a let-off later in the game when Gerrard gave Sturridge the chance to take a penalty, so that Sturridge could complete his hat-trick, but the former Chelsea man missed from the spot.
Roberto Martinez boasted before the game that his side could beat Liverpool, but they were sent home with their tails between their legs.
#1 Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City (2011)
The Manchester derby was never a big game for Manchester United before Manchester City became a wealthy club. Even then, when City visited Old Trafford on October 23, 2011, not a soul would have predicted the outcome of the game.
Prior to the game, the biggest Premier League defeat the home side had faced at Old Trafford was a 4-1 defeat against Liverpool back in 2009. But that wasn’t something to worry about at that point because City had not beaten United in their last six league encounters, and the Red Devils had won five of those games.
City led just by just one goal after the first half courtesy of Mario Balotelli, but the second half was completely one-sided and the eventual result could have been even more embarrassing. United’s woes grew when Johnny Evans was sent off in the second half and City began the onslaught.
Balotelli doubled the lead and his personal tally in the second half before Sergio Aguero scored City’s third. Darren Fletcher scored a consolation goal for the home side, but this spurred City on further, as they scored three more goals late into the game, courtesy of a brace from Edin Dzeko and a goal from David Silva.
Sir Alex Ferguson called the defeat a terrible result and indeed it was; it was their worst home defeat since February 1955 (incidentally, City were the victors 56 years ago as well). This was also the first time United had conceded six goals in a game since 1930, when Huddersfield won 6-0 and Newcastle won 7-4 within four days of each other.
After the game, Roberto Mancini said his focus was on the title, and he lived up to those words as City lifted their maiden Premier League title at the end of the season.
