The hatred has only grown in recent seasons: now the quality has been raised as well. Rangers stopping the Celtic dominance really hurt the Bhoys – but they've bounced back to make this season a two-horse race.
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More Scots are playing at the top level of the Premier League, the national side made Euro 2020 and its two biggest sides are back to full strength.Ĭeltic and Rangers never needs too much introduction – but each Old Firm team getting shrewder tactically and the Gers closing the gap at the top has reinstated the flame at the heart of this age-old fixture. Scottish football is seeing a resurgence. When two German press-happy coaches go to war against one another, it's always high octane. The league meeting after Christmas was just as frenetic, while the first between the Reds and Blues at the start of the season was high-tempo and intense. That sense of chaos has somehow always remained in this fixture, with 2022's League Cup final showing being arguably the most entertaining 0-0 in recent memory. In the 2000s' big four of Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, the former two were the upstarts, looking to disrupt the status quo from the Fergie/Wenger monopoly. Mainz has got a lot to answer for, with two managers leaving the Bundesliga outfit to come and lead these two English clubs to Champions League trophies. This game has become one of the most fun in recent years as a result. The Roman clubs couldn't get bigger than the likes of Inter and Juve so have adapted to try and be smarter.
The artistry of Maurizio Sarri at Lazio meets the hard-nosed pragmatism of Jose Mourinho: both are fiery customers, too (as if this match needed any more of that). In 2022, however, Lazio vs Roma is a bigger deal, with two managers well-known to English audiences in the dugout. The last one of them to win a title was over 20 years ago now, when Roma completed the feat in 2001. The two giants of the Eternal City are small fry compared to the sides from the north.