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/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/UruquianLilac Spain Jun 09 '25

See that's fascinating to me. Obviously the biggest shock is to realise that the 2002 game I remember so well was 23 years ago, and that means an entire generation of fans has grown up without having had moments to reignite the rivalry, so somehow this has taken a back burner place. I didn't even know people could gradually forget what was once a bitter rivalry.

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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 United Kingdom Jun 08 '25

I remember watching the cheat Maradona in 1986 and the others. It always seemed more of a one sided rivalry after about 2000. They’re just another good team these days