Towards the biggest match of Bosnian football

The biggest match of Bosnian football is played on Saturday at the Grbavica stadium. Željezničar and Sarajevo will face each other for the 110th time in the league and decide who is the boss in the city.

This, like many previous derbies, is marked by a tense atmosphere. Namely, dissatisfied with the number of tickets they received for Saturday's derby (1,090), Sarajevo fans decided to boycott the match, which will certainly affect the atmosphere itself. There is no doubt that Željo's fans will once again create a great spectacle, but without the biggest rivals on the other side, the derby loses its recognizable significance not only in BiH, but also much wider, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Željezničar and Sarajevo had a poor prelude to the eternal derby. In the first leg of the Cup semi-finals, Željo was defeated in Široki, while Sarajevo played only 1:1 against Mladost at Koševo, which will undoubtedly affect the mood of the players of both clubs before the biggest match between these two clubs.

On the other hand, the importance of the match, i.e., the fight for the national championship title, obliges the players of both clubs to forget yesterday's failures as soon as possible. The last few derbies ended without a winner and goals, which puts additional pressure on the players of the Blue and Red clubs to finally provide the fans with a game worthy of a derby.

In mutual duels, Željezničar currently has one more win (32-31), while 46 derbies ended without a winner. The overall goal difference is in favor of Sarajevo (124:122). If we also count Cup matches, Željezničar and Sarajevo have played a total of 124 matches.

The first official league match was played on October 10, 1954, at Grbavica, in which Sarajevo celebrated with a convincing 6:1, while Željo retaliated with a 3:2 victory at Koševo in April of the following year. 

Although the last few matches have not lived up to the epithet of a derby, these two clubs have played a large number of matches in history that fans remember with enthusiasm. When it comes to the post-war period, the two biggest matches were undoubtedly the first one at Grbavica in May 1996 after the reintegration of the Grbavica settlement and the final for the BiH champion at Koševo in 1998, when Željo, with a goal by Hadis Zubanović in the final moments of the match, won their first BiH championship title. Since then, June 5th has been called Zuban Day for Željezničar fans. 

The top scorers in the eternal derbies are Dželaludin Muharemović from Željo and Asim Ferhatović from Sarajevo, who scored six goals each. 

What is certain is that, regardless of form or league standing, there are no favorites in derbies. This will be the case on Saturday at Grbavica.