Know Your Bundesliga Derbies

If you check any dictionary, the meanings of ‘derby’ are related to race or sports. And if you are a football lover, the meaning that will seem significant is “a game between local sports teams”. Many of you would have heard of the English Derbies like Manchester Derby, North London Derby, North-West Derby, and the most famous Merseyside Derby. When teams of a league are world-class competitors, then their clash is also deemed a derby, like El Clasico! Here, we will get well versed with one such German Derbies.

The Rivierderby

Those who are not new to the Bundesliga might know very well why this derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke is called the “Mother of all derbies”. The reason for it being one of the fiercest rivalries in world football fascinatingly stems from a mix of geography and socio-economics of North Rhine-Westphalia region in Germany.
Basically, equally passionate sets of fans, claiming to be most zealous in the world, face off to claim the local bragging rights in the common German industrial heartland. For generation, both fans have worked together for coal and steel production in the country – coal from Schalke side and steel from Dortmund side. But on the pitch, the 22 warriors translate the heart and passion of their similar working-class fan base, as they arose from similar backgrounds too. No matter how good or bad the season goes for either team, like a proper derby this encounter transforms the teams into different beasts and the match never ends up to be a boring affair.
One such memorable drama took place in November 2017 when a 4-0 leading Dortmund ended up drawing 4-4 after Schalke scored a last-gasp equaliser. Basically, they gave Dortmund a taste of their own medicine with this bitter comeback!
A season ago, Schalke was relegated owing to some scandalous events, but they rose from Bundesliga 2 and got promoted. The closeness of the two clubs is just 20.5 miles geographically and 36-32 victories statistically out of 98 encounters. However, it will take some time for Schalke to fill the gap in terms of level of players this season.

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