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Palmeiras vs. Corinthians Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Rivals, The Offbeat Guide To The 92 League Clubs, is one of the best derby books available.
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Aston Villa - Birmingham City (3-1) |
Premiership, 16 April 2006 |
Stadium : Villa Park |
Attendance : 40.158 |
The 2nd City Derby certainly means a lot in Birmingham.
What it lacks in spectacle (no flares, few flags etc) is somewhat compensated by the often compelling drama of a typical English Premiership game.
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This match was played at midday on a reasonably pleasant day(compared to the recent UK winter) before a crowd some few thousand below capacity. The context had added spice because of Birmingham being threatened with relegation & Villa being not yet safe.
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The Blues support, maybe 4000, mainly in the lower tier of the North Stand, were noisy enough at the start ("keep on to the end of the road ...") & especially after they equalised, but once Villa had got on top in the 2nd half they became reconciled to their fate.
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Hence it was mainly the Holte End that had reason to crow ("you’re going down with the Baggies...") & they could enjoy a close-up view of a spectacular first-ever goal by young defender Gary Cahill.
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Neither team has had a great season, Villa need revitalising & Birmingham have a (probably doomed) battle to stay in the top division.
As far as I could tell there was no trouble inside the stadium, and the early kick-off meant there was little time for drinking beforehand (it being Easter Sunday few, if any, bars would be open) though it was possible to get a drink inside the ground. There was a significant police presence outside though not overbearing. No doubt afterwards the local bars were full of claret & blue shirts enjoying their (liquid) Sunday lunches.The Blues fans would depart to there own pubs to drown their sorrows and debate what went wrong.
Report added : 17 April 2006
Report by : k397m
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