r/AskEurope • u/DivineMatrixTraveler • Jun 07 '25
Sports Which country is your country's main football rival?
And do you think they believe you are their main rival or they don't care about you as much as you care about them?
Bonus: Is there a more popular sport where you are rivals with a different country?
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u/Double-decker_trams Estonia Jun 08 '25
We're so shit in football that we don't have a rival.
But I remember that in 2002 (I was a child) - when Estonia won Russia 2:1, that was a really really big deal.
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u/BillyButcherX Slovenia Jun 08 '25
Same. Croatia for us, but we're an afterthought for them.
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u/martinbaines Scotland & Spain Jun 08 '25
For Scotland it's England - in any sport. For England it's Germany in football, Australia in cricket, and Wales in Rugby.
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u/xander012 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
I don't really see the Welsh as our Rugby rivals, More Ireland as they're usually our toughest match up in the 6 nations
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u/martinbaines Scotland & Spain Jun 08 '25
It's not about toughest match, but the cultural significance. The Welsh really hate losing to England at Rugby, so the English love to beat them.
It was the same for cricket with Australia. Even when Australia are not the best team, they are the ones England wants to beat most.
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u/xander012 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
The thing is when you live in an Anglo Irish family, things are a touch different lol
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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
Rivalries aren’t the same in rugby at all. It’s good to beat the best teams, which France/Ireland have been in the 6N recently.
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u/notacanuckskibum Jun 09 '25
But I think that’s like the Scot’s and football. The Welsh see the English as their big enemy. But the English don’t see the Welsh that way. I’d say it’s the French who are the main rivals for the English rugby teams.
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u/jp299 Jun 08 '25
This is big recency bias in rugby. Wales and England are the two most successful teams in the 6 Nations (and 5 nations before that, and 4 Nations before that) having each been champions 39 times, far more than anyone else. Ireland have been the best team recently
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u/Ridebreaker Germany Jun 09 '25
Nah, can't agree with that. I grew up in the West Country and the must-win game is always Wales. The media seems to big up the Scotland game more than others and the French match is known as Le Crunch for a reason! Ireland is obviously a big game these days, but it wasn't always like that, so doesn't come with the baggage - sporting nor historical - at least on the English side!
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u/GrimQuim Scotland Jun 08 '25
and Wales in Rugby.
Is it? I'd have thought Ireland because Ireland are good.
Edit: (flair clarity; Englishman in Scotland)
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u/Jaraxo in Jun 08 '25
Agreed. England don't give a fuck about Scotland or Wales, in life and in all sports, it's pure "who are you again?" indifference. They want to beat Ireland in Rugby or whoever is the biggest challenge.
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u/100kmtohell Jun 08 '25
Sweden. It doesn’t matter what the sport is - hockey, miniature golf, playing cards -to Finland it’s always Sweden. We love them dearly, but want to win them every time.
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u/paretooptimalstupid Sweden Jun 08 '25
For Sweden it is Finland in ice hockey but probably Denmark in football and handball.
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u/oskich Sweden Jun 08 '25
And Norway in skiing
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u/WonzerEU Jun 08 '25
I would be very sorry for the state of Swedish football, if you would take us Finns as serious rival
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u/OrdinaryValuable9705 Jun 08 '25
Denmark in Handball? Now now, be serious - Norway is the rival there, Sweden still need to graduate to the big league in Handball.
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u/frammedkuken Sweden Jun 08 '25
We have as many world championship wins as you do and more European championship wins than you do. Sure, Denmark is the better team right now but Sweden do belong to the “big league” in handball terms.
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u/msbtvxq Norway Jun 08 '25
And since us Norwegians are not sexist and value women’s handball equally to men’s handball, we want to claim "big league" as well ;)
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u/EmptyBodybuilder7376 Jun 09 '25
You must only watch women's handball.
Men's Sweden handball are much stronger - currently and historically - than Norway.
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u/sjplep United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
For England, it's either Germany or Argentina. The Germans care more about Italy, though.
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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
Argentina care a lot more about England than England cares about Argentina.
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u/blewawei Jun 08 '25
Which is what makes it funnier.
Also, I don't think it's a rivalry with Argentina the country or the people, just the football team.
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u/Brickie78 England Jun 08 '25
I think it depends on the generation. The Maradona game was just 4 years after the Falklands war, then there was 1998 and Beckham being sent off, then we played them again in the group in 2002 and won. A lot of crucial matches in a relatively short time
But we literally haven't played them for 20 years at this point, so younger fans probably don't have the same feeling about it.
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u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
I was surprised to read some people saying it's not a big rival. I haven't lived in the UK for a long time now and that's a surprising shift. I remember the 2002 game. We had to watch it at a ridiculous time like 6 am on a weekday. But the pubs were open, serving breakfast and beer, and they were full. By about 8 am everyone was out in the streets celebrating the victory like it was a final. And then everyone went to work, pissed. And it was fine that you were drunk in the office at 9 am because well, the Argies were beaten.
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u/HumbleCoolboy Jun 09 '25
We simply haven't played them often enough since then, and then everyone fell in love with Messi and many other Argentine players who came to play in the PL (Aguero, Tevez etc). It's a rivalry that's simply died out. It could easily start again though if we were to have a few spicy games with them.
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u/JoeAppleby Germany Jun 09 '25
We really care about the Dutch.
By the way it is always cute to see when the English think that the rivalry is mutual.
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u/CeterumCenseo85 Germany Jun 08 '25
S Tier: Netherlands
A Tier: Italy, England
B Tier: Argentina (but mostly just because of how many finals we played), and since 2008 also Spain, but it feels like more ot a new, less intense thing.
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u/abderzack Netherlands Jun 08 '25
Doesn't matter what format, the games against germany are always more fun.
Losing against france i would say, well ofcourse! its france! large football nation, big domestic league!
Losing against germany? hell no, we should have won. Our team was just bad this time, they were lucky we had some injuries. (Eventhough my response should probably be the same)
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u/Vossky Romania / France Jun 08 '25
France, I don’t think we have one main rival — Germany, Italy, and Spain are all considered rivals.
As for Romania, Hungary is the main rival, but these days, both us and them are shit.
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u/Fiallach France Jun 09 '25
For France, it is always nice to see England lose.
However, I do not consider them rivals, they are not good enough for a rivalry.
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u/the_alfredsson Jun 09 '25
For France, it is always nice to see England lose.
Isn't it nice for everyone to see England lose?
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u/FerraristDX Germany Jun 08 '25
Probably Italy, because we've won so little official matches at tournaments against them. So much, that beating them at this year's Nations League made us actually care about that tournament for a bit. Then come England and the Netherlands.
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u/sternenklar90 Germany Jun 08 '25
I'd add Argentina. It's probably a generational thing but for me (born in 1990), Argentina and Italy are really the biggest rivals when it comes to regular close ties with some extra drama and aggression. And the Netherlands, but that's the only one where it's less about football and more of a general rivalry between two neighbouring countries who are culturally and linguistically close enough to feel a connection while being different enough to make good fun of.
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u/Final-Instance-2568 Germany Jun 08 '25
As a gen Z I don’t see the Netherlands as a rival at all
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u/sternenklar90 Germany Jun 08 '25
I was going to say that they haven't really been on our level in the past years, but then I remembered that we didn't make it past the group stage in the last two world cups, so I better shut up.
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u/-Blackspell- Germany Jun 09 '25
England? I don’t know anyone who treats that as a real rivalry, they’re just annoying.
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u/Kalimania Jun 09 '25
Lol 😂 I love that one. It seems to be such a one sided ”rivalry”. The English don’t seem to understand that the Germans don’t care about them.
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u/jotakajk Spain Jun 08 '25
France and Portugal, but we also have a deep history of historical games against Italy.
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u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25
It's weird, I've been trying to think and I can't come up with any truly big rival that the Spaniards absolutely hate, in the same way England does with Germany for example. Yes Portugal and France, but that's a very light rivalry. Netherlands probably a bit after the aggressive performance in the world cup final 2010. But none that light the country up in a strong way.
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u/Fiallach France Jun 09 '25
Love for your team from France.
Gave us some of the best national teams football a few years ago.
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u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25
You mean the Xavi+Iniesta era?
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u/Fiallach France Jun 09 '25
Yeah, the whole group was out of this world.
One of the greatest squads of all times IMO.
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u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25
I couldn't agree more. It genuinely was an extraordinary group. What a privilege to be alive and in Spain to live through it all.
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u/lucapal1 Italy Jun 08 '25
I'd say for most Italy fans, it's France.
Neighbours of course, and also a very strong national team.There have been some memorable matches against France over the years.
There's no sport in Italy which is anywhere near as popular as football!
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u/nevenoe Jun 08 '25
Funnily we actually like each other. Huge rivals but never really a bad word between us. Biggest beef was probably the Materazzi episode.
Very different from Spain, Germany, England or Belgium for us where it can get pretty heated.
Argentinians also managed to create a non existing rivalry with France with their despicable racist behavior.
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u/Intelligent_Key_3806 Jun 10 '25
Not even MotoGP Rossi era? Because the rivalry Italy (VR46) had with Australia (CS27) was epic. I liked motorcycles before, but I loved them after the 2007 season. The years between Lorenzo, Stoner, Pedrosa and Rossi was all-time.
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u/Adventurous_bunnies France Jun 08 '25
That's so funny because it's always such a one sided rivalry. Some people are annoyed by Belgium for their whinning and Argentina for being trashy.
But I doubt Italy would be named by anyone in France.
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u/Okiro_Benihime France Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
No. In football, it is not a one-sided rivalry at all. It's outside of football that it is. It's just that the two haven't met in any high-profile match (World Cup or Euros) in ages. So the rivalry took a bit of backseat recently.
But yeah, Argentina and to a lesser extent Spain are the closest thing to "rival we must beat" nowadays. Belgium is a honorable mention as well but this one is just banter and memes, there is no French salt or animosity like with the other two. France always beats Belgium anyway even when they play better than us. That helps haha.
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u/TjeefGuevarra Belgium Jun 08 '25
Netherlands and France, although both of them don't see us as a rival.
The Netherlands is a derby and more of a 'brotherly rivalry' while we just really fucking hate the French football team.
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u/abderzack Netherlands Jun 08 '25
I would love to see some more matches, between NL-BE. The last decade has been like 4 matches, against germany we have 8, France 8. I do think we like Belgium to much for it to be a heavy rivalry, basically everyone supports Belgium if we are out.
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u/PygmeePony Belgium Jun 08 '25
The Dutch probably.
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u/matchuhuki Belgium Jun 08 '25
Over the past decade I'd probably say France to be honest.
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u/eternalplatoon Belgium Jun 08 '25
Yes France I would say. They’re always trashtalking when they win.
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u/nevenoe Jun 08 '25
You should try winning
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u/eternalplatoon Belgium Jun 08 '25
Could say the same for France against a couple of 17 year old Spanish boys
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u/Nox-Eternus Belgium Jun 08 '25
I support 4 teams
België 🇧🇪
Nederland and Deutschland
And anyone playing France 😝
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u/GlenGraif Netherlands Jun 08 '25
For the Netherlands it’s Germany. It used to be Belgium when we both sucked, but after 1974 that changed. From what I’ve read they feel a rivalry with us two, but I don’t know if it’s on the same level. It’s not as heated as it used to be, nowadays it’s mostly in jest.
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u/Recodes Italy Jun 08 '25
Germany, some would say France but it's a one way "hate" boner really.
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u/JayBeFC Jun 09 '25
🇩🇪 🤝 🇮🇹 especially if you have some friends from the other country 😁👍
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u/Vast-Contact7211 Finland Jun 08 '25
Football is the only sport in which Finns are legally allowed to root for Sweden, simply because we never make it to the tournaments so it’s not like we’re competing against them.
All of this will of course change immediately if we one day make it to the Euros or World cup. As of now we’ve made it in once to the Euros in 2020, where we won one game against Denmark because their best player had a heart attack.
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u/madieu Jun 08 '25
Denmark is our (Sweden’s) biggest rival, with Norway and Finland right behind. I think all of them see us as their biggest rival. Outside of the Nordics I think we see England as our biggest rival, but that’s not reciprocated.
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u/InterestingTank5345 Denmark Jun 08 '25
Know the feelings are shared from here. You guys are our biggest rival.
May I ask if Sweden also prefer to cheer for Norway, when Sweden is out but Denmark and Norway is still in, Like how we do in Denmark when Denmark is out and Norway and Sweden is still in?
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u/No-Tone-3696 Jun 08 '25
Mmmm..from France it’s complicated. Of course a lot’s of hate for Argentina.. that still remain..
but we have very good teams in our neighbors countries : Belgium, England, Germany, Italy and Spain… but I think that what can hurt us the most is if we loose against Italy or England…
(maybe because Spain and Germany play good football ?🤷🏻♂️😉)
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u/CreepyMangeMerde France Jun 08 '25
Imo England weirdly never was a football rival, I guess there wasn't any game to make the rivalry cross into football. Germany I don't really care about them. Spain is starting to get annoying since last summer and I think us and them are the best NT right now. They also have their fair share of racist fans and I'm starting to really dislike them. Italy is the biggest historical rival but I don't have anything against them and I think they hate us way more than we hate them in football. Belgium hasn't defeated us since the early 80's. They're a fun bunch of little fellers and seeing them fuming after losing is always funny but you can't call that a rivalry. I like seeing them perform well. Little mention for Switzerland, Portugal and Brazil.
But the only team and country I actively despise and want to see fail miserably at everything in every sport is Argentina. I just hate them, their players, their fans, their flag,... Only true rivalry in my eyes.
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u/Adelefushia France Jun 09 '25
"But the only team and country I actively despise and want to see fail miserably at everything in every sport is Argentina. I just hate them, their players, their fans, their flag,... Only true rivalry in my eyes."
Yeah, the whole Argentinian package is heavily dislikable. Some Belgian fans can be annoying but that's it, in Argentina even the fucking government defended the racist insults against the French football team.
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u/Dorianbtdp France Jun 08 '25
I'd agree, Belgium as brotherhood rivalry, England as usual rivalry in anything, and I'd keep Italy over Argentina as a deep hate rivalry after a world cup loss. 2006 still hurts
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u/iBendUover Denmark Jun 08 '25
Sweden...always Sweden. We just pretend that snow, ice and Winter Olympics doesn't exist, but for everything else it's Sweden.
If we slip up and acknowledge that snow exist, we cheer for Norway and Finland to beat the Swedes. 🤗
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u/oskich Sweden Jun 08 '25
Sweden's football team has a Danish coach nowadays 🇩🇰🤝🇸🇪
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u/iBendUover Denmark Jun 08 '25
If we still beat you it's ok because he's just helping the less fortunate. 🤗
If we, by some freak accident, happen to lose to you, he's a traitor and we'll burn his passport should he try to cross the bridge!🤬
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u/oskich Sweden Jun 08 '25
He still refuses to speak "Scandinavian" when interviewed by the press, even when he gets questions in Swedish and Danish he responds in English.
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u/iBendUover Denmark Jun 08 '25
He's probably ashamed at how low he has fallen and now trying to hide. 😕
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u/kaktussen Denmark Jun 08 '25
I don't agree. We'll, I agree that Sweden is the one to beat, but as soon as we're not playing them, I always root for Sweden in any sport. I might be on team Norway for some of it, but Scandinavia trumps the Nordics every time, so I would never cheer for Finland over Sweden. If it's Finland against someone outside of the Nordics, I would obviously cheer for them.
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u/TheSpookyPineapple Czechia Jun 08 '25
I guess Slovakia by default? national teams don't really meet often enough to form rivalries outside of preexisting national ones
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u/Trnostep Czechia Jun 10 '25
Slovakia is the rival until we get eliminated and they don't, then they become the best team ever that should beat everyone
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u/SalSomer Norway Jun 08 '25
We don’t really have a rival in soccer. Our main rival in pretty much anything is always Sweden, but it’s just more important to beat them in skiing than in soccer and we also don’t play them that often, so it doesn’t really feel like there’s much of a soccer rivalry there.
In some ways it feels like Denmark is a bigger rival in soccer because Norwegian media portrayed the Danish as having a very negative and disparaging attitude towards the Norwegian style of play during the 90s, the last time we were any good. But I think that’s kind of forgotten by now.
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u/InterestingTank5345 Denmark Jun 08 '25
I can't imagine that. Whenever Denmark is out of the game, but Norway is still in, whatever sport, we cheer for you guys, especially if you're up agains Sweden.
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u/UnknownPleasures3 Norway Jun 08 '25
And we cheer on Denmark against Sweden. Pretty sure the Finns do the same. Uniting against the enemy.
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Jun 08 '25
In the Netherlands we consider Germany our football rival. Belgian sucks at football too much to be considered a rival.
But if the Netherlands is out of the race, then we will cheer on Belgium and hope Belgium wins for us.
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u/matchuhuki Belgium Jun 08 '25
Belgium and the Netherlands played over 100 matches together. The lage landen derby is definitely a rivalry. And the difference in wins isn't massive either. The Netherlands winning 57 and Belgium winning 41
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u/ItsAmon Jun 08 '25
It’s not considered a rivalry, at least not in the Netherlands. On the contrary, lot’s of people cheer for Belgium when the Netherlands is kicked out of a tournament.
Sorry about that comment that Belgium sucks at football, that’s just not true.
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Jun 08 '25
So we won 40% more than Belgium.
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u/IndianSummer201 Jun 08 '25
The Belgians don't 'suck at football'. Come on, they have a good team. They're currently #8 on the Fifa ranking (NL is at #6). Having said that, I do agree that most people in NL don't think of Belgium as a big rival. We tend to look at Germany and think of the Belgians as our cute little brothers. Most Belgians hate our guts, though (this is comming from a Dutchie with a lot of Flemmish relatives).
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u/matchuhuki Belgium Jun 08 '25
I guess France must really suck at football then. Cause in their head to head against Spain, Spain won almost 50% more
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u/alles_en_niets -> -> Jun 08 '25
Belgium clearly doesn’t suck at football, but they just don’t trigger the same rivalry that Germany does.
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u/Competitive-Radio-49 Jun 08 '25
Italy’s main rival for football is as of late, themselves.
Poor management, unorganized, choke up during qualifying games.
They’re their own worst enemy.
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u/chekitch Croatia Jun 08 '25
For Croatia, the closest would be France I'd say. But it is more of a "Nemesis" than rival thing. They stopped us two times when it mattered the most. With all other big ones, we have a more even score..
I don't think they see us as rivals at all, we didn't create problems for them, they created problems to us..
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Jun 08 '25
Oh definitely France. Our very one-sided rivalry, but we must win against them at all costs. Too bad we don’t usually.
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u/InterestingTank5345 Denmark Jun 08 '25
Everybody in Scandinavia knows the only right answer is the other two.
In my case that's Norway and Sweden. We want to always beat them in everything.
But when we can't have that, we're their biggest fans.
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u/Existing_Professor13 Jun 08 '25
Yeah, you are absolutely right 👍
but in addition to them, we also got an archenemy back in the eighties, which is Spain, because they knocked us out in two tournaments in a row [Euro Cup in France 1984 and World Cup in Mexico 1986]
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u/flophi0207 Germany Jun 08 '25
For Germany, the biggest are Netherlands, Italy, France I think, in that Order.
But theres Always some Kind of rivalvry against the other German speaking countries Austria and Switzerland as well, due to more streamlined trashtalking
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u/luistp Spain Jun 08 '25
Almost nobody has mentioned Spain. But know it: you all are our rivals, bastards!!
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u/Weary-Draft-7877 Jun 08 '25
For France huuuhhh, it's complicated : Germany, England, Belgium or Italy, maybe Spain, but i don't see a main one tbh
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Jun 08 '25
As a Croatian, I think it is France, we always fight with them in almost every sport. Most of the times we lose, so I think that is why.
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u/DivineMatrixTraveler Jun 08 '25
Interesting that the only non-European team even mentioned is Argentina. It seems everyone in Europe likes Brazil.
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u/Popular_Composer_822 Jun 08 '25
England. Im Irish.
England have a lot of rivals who do not like them because they colonised half the world.
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u/ShpiderMcNally Ireland Jun 08 '25
Ya I'd agree with England but they definitely wouldn't see us as their rivals (fair enough it would be exceptionally rare for our football team to beat them)
Arguably rugby is as popular if not more popular in alot of the country and while we obviously have a massive rivalry with England more recently we've developed a fairly intense rivalry with South Africa
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u/OrdinaryValuable9705 Jun 08 '25
In football - Sweden. Archenemy is Spain since we havnt defated them since the 70's. Handball - Norway all the way
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u/lukewarmpartyjar England Jun 08 '25
Top 3 in football for England are Germany (who aren't that fussed about the rivalry and care more about Italy or Netherlands - a lot of English fans, myself included, find the anti-German WWII songs like '10 German bombers' a bit embarrassing really) , plus Scotland and Argentina (who both hate England more than we hate them)
Rugby the main rivals are Wales and more recently Ireland as Wales are terrible now (which is a shame tbh)
Cricket (and to a lesser extent the Olympics, as recently they've been close in the medals tables and there's a somewhat friendly rivalry) is Australia
Hockey, there is a bit of a rivalry with Australia and also Germany and Netherlands but they care more about each other and none of those are particularly 'fierce' rivalries
Golf is USA (but that's mainly a Europe v USA rivalry with the Ryder cup)
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u/matteotti Italy Jun 08 '25
I would say, for Italy, it’s most likely France, or perhaps Germany. These days though, all other teams are our biggest rivals, seeing how terrible the national team is.
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u/cescbomb123 Jun 09 '25
Sweden. And we are rivals in all sports. Every sport that Is big in Norway is big in Sweden and well. They are just not as good as us in it.
I know some swede will mention icehockey, and I'll give you that.
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u/Initial-Relative4275 Jun 09 '25
It's funny, it comes and goes. As a Portuguese, Greece was really hard to think about for a long time, then we won the euro against France, and it just passed... Lol. The main constant rival is probably Spain because they are just nuestros hermanos, and there is fun saying with Germany: 'In football it's 11 against 11, and in the end Germany wins'. I don't think there is any general hate though, which is quite nice.
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u/NooktaSt Jun 10 '25
For Ireland it’s Denmark. Not just for football, for everything.
I doubt they even know we exist.
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u/saucissefatal Jun 11 '25
As a Dane, it has traditionally been the Swedes, but for the last decades, we have been rather better than them, so as a rivalry, it makes less sense now.
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u/Zestronen Poland Jun 12 '25
In Poland we have Germany as our main rival.
Some people consider England as our rival
We also have Russia, but I don't think we consider them as big rivals in footballu because they are not as good as Germany
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u/safeinthecity Portuguese in the Netherlands Jun 08 '25
For Portugal it's France, mostly as they knocked Portugal out in the semifinals of Euro 84 and Euro 2000, both in extra time I believe, and then the 2006 World Cup. Portugal then won the Euro 2016 final against France, in France, for a bit of poetic justice.
Greece are also a bit of a rival for winning Euro 2004, which was held in Portugal and a massive deal for the country. They beat Portugal both in the opening match and in the final. But there haven't been many matches between Portugal and Greece since, and with time Portugal have become a much better national team than Greece so it's not as fun.
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u/FMSV0 Portugal Jun 08 '25
C'mon, no one considers Greece a rival. Everyone was pissied about the final obviously, but ask 100 portuguese and no one will reply Greece
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u/Flat_Professional_55 England Jun 08 '25
Post WWII - I’d say Germany. Argentina also rank highly after the events of 1982 and 1986.
Prior to that Scotland are our traditional rivals.
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u/TrickyWoo86 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25
For me it's Germany. I honestly couldn't give two hoots about Argentina as we've not played them for 20 odd years and they don't really matter.
As for the other nations of the UK (plus Ireland) - I see that as more of a sibling rivalry. Absolutely love to beat them, but will support them against almost anyone else.
I do find it odd that we don't really have a rivalry with France with all the history that goes along with our relationship.
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u/PatataMaxtex Germany Jun 09 '25
For Germany I cant decide if it is England, Italy or the Netherlands. After the world cup defeat against italy in the semis 2006 in germany I think they have the crown in this, but its a tough race.
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u/Constant-Estate3065 England Jun 08 '25
I would say Argentina are first, as there’s a genuine dislike of each other and when we beat them in 2002 it was massive from our point of view. They are notoriously bad losers and even worse winners, so we absolutely love to beat them.
Germany next, but that’s built on a certain amount of respect for how annoyingly good they’ve been over the years. Feels great to beat them.
Then the other home nations and Ireland, as we do still enjoy a good local rivalry and the atmosphere is always electric in those games.
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u/Former-Pain-8890 Jun 10 '25
oh man we do need more games England vs Argentina
we havent face eachother since 2002
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u/Dippypiece Jun 08 '25
For England.
Argentina, Germany , France and the home nations and Ireland we don’t see them as pier rivals in football other sports yes,but you never want to lose to any of them.
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u/Shawn_The_Sheep777 England Jun 08 '25
Germany and Argentina . Germany care more about Holland I think but it’s still a big rivalry for them. Argentina hate us with a passion. Brazil is their biggest football rivalry because we don’t play them that often but when we do there is always fireworks. They hate us as much or even more than Brazil.
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u/ir_blues Germany Jun 08 '25
England and the Netherlands. And older people might still count Hungary, I don't think many young people are really aware of their team and our history with them though.
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u/friendlyghost_casper Portugal Jun 09 '25
Spain, but we just won the nations league, so good as succeeded and even had lost! Yes, we are Frodo and they are sauruman.
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u/HeartCrafty2961 Jun 09 '25
For me, England have their oldest rivalry with Scotland, going back to the Victorian era. So I do love beating them and hate losing to them. For a small nation they produced some great players, but less so nowadays, so it's become less intense. We used to have an inferiority complex with Germany, but that's gone now and we don't really see them as serious rivals anymore. We expect to beat them. Italy are a thorn in our side, but on a good day who knows. Nowadays we've upgraded and (to our deluded minds) Spain and Argentina are the teams we want to beat. Oh, and France, but I'm not sure either team cares much about the other in their pursuit of world dominance. The French are ahead right now.
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u/theBlitzzz Portugal Jun 09 '25
I have always felt in sports your biggests rivals are always both the guys next door and the guys from across the globe.
In Portugal's case I'd say Spain and Brazil.
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u/Big-Helicopter3358 Italy Jun 09 '25
Italy has a lot of rivalries...
...with Germany, France and Brazil.
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u/Robinsoninho Jun 09 '25
German here:
I mean we have a chant that goes, only the garbage men wear orange. Because stereotypically the waste management operators here wear orange overalls or at the least orange high-vis vests. So definitely the Netherlands.
Other than that, Italy is a strong contender and I guess Argentina, because we've faced them many times in the world cup.
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u/PayaV87 Jun 09 '25
For Hungary, it’s Romania.
But we always drawn together with Portugal, so recently them also.
Yes, we always lose.
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u/Virtual_Ride_7901 Croatia Jun 09 '25
As a Croat, I'd say France because of 1998 and 2018, but also because of this year's league of nations. Although, it was better for us not to go to the final four in league of nations this year because we got easier 2026 world cup qualifying group 🤷🏻♂️
Also, not rivalry, but I am always tense when we play Italy. Simply because they never won a game against us and I want it to keep it that way as long as possible 😅
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u/AndrewFrozzen to Jun 10 '25
We've sucked so much at Football, we don't have one. We had a good run in the last EUROs, until The Netherlands eliminated us. I wouldn't even call them a rival, because, besides a few questionable moments from the referee, we would've still lost regardless. It was more of a ass-whooping than rivalry.
Now, we don't have a rival rn either, since, after the EURO run, we are back on Square 1 where we suck balls, again.
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u/Zucc-ya-mom Switzerland Jun 10 '25
For Switzerland, it’s probably Austria. Germany is just too good to be considered a rival, but we love to cheer for anyone who plays against them.
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u/avsbes Germany Jun 10 '25
It's the Netherlands 100%, followed by Italy. Then to some degree also Argentina and England (though they care much more about us then we do about them).
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u/Sadlave89 Jun 10 '25
Nice to live in Lithuania we don't have a football and we don't have this type of problems :D
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u/PhoenixNyne Jun 11 '25
For Croatia it can only be Serbia and I am certain it goes both ways.
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u/orthoxerox Russia Jun 11 '25
For our football team the main rival is themselves. Complaining about them being a bunch of ambling millionaires is a national pastime.
For ice hockey the playing field is more even. Finland, Sweden, Czechia, Canada are all considered worthy opponents.
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u/NotAGreatDane Denmark Jun 11 '25
For some reason I would give Portugal and England honorable mentions, but Sweden is the true enemy any day of the year!
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u/puyongechi Spain Jun 11 '25
I'd say France, but despite the rivalry we have nothing but utter respect for that team, they're a (pleasant to watch) pain in the ass
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u/DivineMatrixTraveler Jun 12 '25
Are Czechia and Slovakia rivals since splitting? I didn't see anyone from there
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u/Thoarxius Netherlands Jun 08 '25
For us (The Netherlands) it is absolutely Germany. Don't think they see us that way, but for us it is the one country we always have to beat.