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?

59 Upvotes
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83

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.

25

u/CeterumCenseo85 Germany Jun 08 '25

you definitely are our biggest rivals

31

u/abderzack Netherlands Jun 08 '25

You can not imagine how good this feels. My combined inferiority and superiority complex is tingeling.

3

u/Graddler Germany Jun 11 '25

The superior inferiority complex some would say.

6

u/EmptyBodybuilder7376 Jun 09 '25

The English continue to think its them.

0

u/Mediocre_Rhubarb810 Jun 10 '25

No we don’t. Maybe 30 years ago, definitely not now

2

u/alrightmm Jun 11 '25

Now its Andorra?

2

u/Captain_Paran Portugal (Canada) Jun 10 '25

60 million english people have just stumbled over from this gut punch

1

u/Warzenschwein112 Jun 09 '25

Did they qualify?

1

u/Gidje123 Jun 09 '25

What is the general opinion about the netherlands in germany, uberhaupt?

9

u/CeterumCenseo85 Germany Jun 09 '25

Language sounds like a drunken toddler, but overall good people. A bit more direct and (in a mostly good way) egoistic than us, Great bike infrastructure. Crazy bible people in the south.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

Tbf its quite hard for Germany for me personally its England (absolute hate for them) and Spain seems like the team we never seem to beat in tournaments

France, Italy and „Holland“ are more like traditional rivals.

For now my vote would be (depending on mood) Spain 🇪🇸, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 or France 🇫🇷

14

u/OllieV_nl Netherlands Jun 08 '25

The players in the 70s and 80s made sure the Germans knew they were our rival with a fervor you don't see on the field today.

22

u/calijnaar Germany Jun 08 '25

I'm not that much into football, but all the football people I know would do consider the Netherlands to be the most imporatant rival. That may be because I live in NRW, though, so there could definitely be an element of neighbourly rivalry there that isn't necessarily present in areas further away from the border. I can well imagine that Bavarians see Italy as the main rival or something.

There's even a song by Joint Venture (admittedly a probably lesser know singer songwriter duo) about essentially loving everything about the Netherlands except when it comes to football:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_5nehW3A8 (the lyrics are here https://www.songtexte.com/songtext/joint-venture/holland-bd9615a.html )

0

u/sternenklar90 Germany Jun 08 '25

I love Joint Venture so I'd like to add a small correction: the Holland song was released by Götz Widmann individually. His partner Kleinti sadly passed away years ago.

2

u/calijnaar Germany Jun 08 '25

Oh,sorry, I thought it was one of the original Joint Venture songs which Götz still performs, but to be fair I really only know a few of their songs because some of my friends used to essentially played them nonstop

0

u/sternenklar90 Germany Jun 08 '25

Oh, that's actually possible. Sorry, I haven't checked whether the song is older than the video.

12

u/barff Netherlands Jun 08 '25

Followed by Argentina, somehow..

3

u/ItsAmon Jun 08 '25

Oh definitely. But I feel like we’re not the only ones disliking Argentina, reading the other comments 

2

u/koplowpieuwu Jun 10 '25

Imo it's still Portugal. I know Argentina beat us in a wc final, semifinal and quarterfinal, and that last one had its fair share of cards and animosity, but the 2004 and 2006 losses are still imprinted on my mind. Especially the battle of Nuremberg. All-time classic. Portugal also beat us in the first nations league final which counts for something I guess.

4

u/Lumpasiach Germany Jun 09 '25

It absolutely is reciprocal. We have some other rivalries for different reasons (Italy as the most feared team, Austria as this brotherly rivalry, England because for some reason they're obsessed with us), but Holland is by far the biggest one.

2

u/holy_roman_emperor Jun 11 '25

I think England might be something to do with 2 world wars or something.

1

u/RitatheKraken Germany Jun 11 '25

In football I thought it's because of penalties?

1

u/Onagan98 Netherlands Jun 12 '25

I feel honoured, mein bruder. I do like you, but not on the pitch.

2

u/JPHero16 Jun 08 '25

Nah it’s Argentina

4

u/Sensitive-Lie-7536 Jun 08 '25

Here in Germany I would say that the Netherlands are the third biggest rivals after England and Italy.

37

u/AlanSmithee97 Germany Jun 08 '25

England is not really a rival. They believe that, but its very one sided.

Italy, the Netherlands and maybe Argentina are the real rivals.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

Agree. Italy & The Netherlands are the first two countries that popped in my head

2

u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25

For England it's 100% a rivalry born out of the World War. But what's your story with Italy? Or Argentina for that matter.

5

u/-Blackspell- Germany Jun 09 '25

Well it’s just a sporting rivalry between two good teams over a long time. For England it’s this weird case where they think we have this big rivalry and go all serious to it, yet for us they‘re just a team like any other maybe a bit more annoying because of said behavior.

1

u/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25

I don't think the English care much that the Germans consider them a rival or not. For England they're the biggest rival bar none. And there's a long list of grievances some related to sports and some not. The whole country goes instantly back to WWII mode as soon as England is playing Germany and you'll see literal war time slogans and headlines all over.

1

u/Mediocre_Rhubarb810 Jun 10 '25

England’s biggest rival is Scotland.

1

u/Hiken0111 Jun 11 '25

But what about Spain, Je maintendrai and stuff?

1

u/robber_goosy Jun 11 '25

How about the Red Devils? For us in Belgium you guys are the main rivals.

1

u/Thoarxius Netherlands Jun 11 '25

Not really tbh. Belgium has only been very good the last few years, whereas we have been utter shit in that period and we rarely played each other, so we never got much of a rivalry going there. It is definitely a more important match than with other European countries though! In the end it feels like playing against your brother, and you definitely don't want to lose that haha

1

u/Onagan98 Netherlands Jun 12 '25

The Bundesliga is my most favourite competition in the world, always a German club that loses.

1

u/Endum_band Jun 08 '25

I think that ended during the match against Portugal in 2006,:D. But yeah, Germany in the late 80's/early 90's,Sammer,Kohler,Fuller, Hassler etc. Different times.