Clássico Mineiro

The Clássico Mineiro (English: Derby of Minas Gerais; ''Mineiro'' is the gentilic for those born in Minas Gerais) is the football derby between Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro, both teams from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It is one of the fiercest rivalries in Brazilian and South American football.

The two clubs practically monopolize the Campeonato Mineiro, and have clashed in decisive matches in the Brasileirão, Copa do Brasil and continental CONMEBOL competitions of.

History

Atlético was founded in the early years of the 20th Century, on March 25, 1908. Cruzeiro was founded 13 years later, on January 2, 1921, among the Belo Horizonte's Italian community, as ''Palestra Itália''. In 1942, due to the enmity between Brazil and Italy in the World War II, Palestra had to change its name to Cruzeiro.

The first derby took place on April 17, 1921, with the newcomer Palestra winning 3–0. The first official match between the two was won by Atlético, by 2–1, on May 15, 1921.

Atlético Mineiro's largest win in the history of the ''Clássico Mineiro'' was on November 27, 1927, in a Campeonato Mineiro match. ''Galo'', which was undefeated that season, thrashed Palestra Itália 9–2 and secured its third Championship title.

In the 1931 Campeonato Mineiro, both Atlético and Palestra finished the competition at the top of the table, tied on points. Thus, according to the rules of the championship, a tie-breaking final was necessary, the first one in the history of the fixture. On November 29, Atlético won the first leg 2–1 at Palestra's stadium. The second leg, which would take place on December 6 at Atlético's stadium, less than 1 mile away from their rival's, did not happen. Atlético had not hired a referee from Rio de Janeiro, as it had been agreed, then gave a list to Palestra with three others from Minas Gerais, which the Italians refused. In addition to that, the preliminary match between their reserve teams had already ended in a fight. The Federation tried to reschedule the match, but Palestra Itália left the entity, which ended up proclaiming ''Galo'' the champions. As a result of this conflict, in 1932, there were two different championships in Minas Gerais, organized by different associations.

In the finals of the 1956 Campeonato Mineiro, after an 1–1 in the first match and a 0–0 in the second, Atlético won the third match 1–0 and won the championship for the fifth time in a row. However, before the last game, Cruzeiro claimed that Atlético had irregularly called in the player Laércio in the second match. Only in 1959, the Superior Court of Sport Justice (STJD) gave the points of the second match to Cruzeiro, legitimizing the club's claim. As the finals were now tied and the clubs were against the idea of scheduling a fourth match, the Federation proclaimed both Atlético and Cruzeiro the champions.

The first derby outside of Minas Gerais took place on June 16, 1960, in a friendly match at the Israel Pinheiro Stadium in Brasília, Brazil's recentely founded capital. The clubs were invited to celebrate the peace between the two, by the president Juscelino Kubitschek, born in Minas Gerais and a Cruzeiro fan. This was the only ''Clássico'' outside Minas Gerais in Brazil's territory, which ended in a 2–2 draw.

The Estádio Governardor Magalhães Pinto, better known as ''Mineirão'', opened on September 5, 1965, and became the home ground of both teams for decades. The first derby at the stadium took place on October 24, 1965, for the Campeonato Mineiro. In the 79th minute of the match, when Cruzeiro was winning 1–0 with a goal from Tostão, the referee Juan de La Passion Artéz rewarded a penalty to the '' Raposa''. Atlético's players were outraged with the signaling and some of them fought with the referee and the police. ''Galo's'' coach and more nine players were sent off. The referee ended the match with a Cruzeiro win in the ''Clássico''.

The beginning of the "Mineirão Era" coincided with a period of dominance by Cruzeiro. With a richly talented team comprising Raul, Piazza, Dirceu Lopes, Natal and Tostão, the Foxes won the 1966 Campeonato Brasileiro and five successive state titles from 1965 to 1969, as Atlético were the runners-up on four occasions.

The first Campeonato Brasileiro match between the two ended in a 4–0 win for Cruzeiro on March 5, 1967, with an attendance of 91,042 people at Mineirão.

By the mid-70s and 80s, Atlético Mineiro established an impressive cast of players of their own, with João Leite, Luizinho, Cerezo, Paulo Isidoro, Nelinho, Éder and Reinaldo making them one of the most revered forces in Brazilian football. During this period, they consistently outstripped Cruzeiro in their matches and won the Campeonato Mineiro 11 times in 14 seasons along the way.

In the quarterfinals of the 1986 Campeonato Brasileiro, Atlético and Cruzeiro faced each other for the first time in the knock-out stage of a national tournament. ''Galo'' advenced after two draws, in 0–0 and 1–1, since the team with the better campaign had the advantadge in case of a tie.

The 1993 Copa de Oro reunited the champions of CONMEBOL competitions in 1992. Atlético, as the champions of the Copa Conmebol, and Cruzeiro, as the champions of the Supercopa Libertadores, faced each other in the semi-finals, in a single match at Mineirão. After a 0–0 draw, Atlético advanced to the finals after winning 5–4 on penalties.

The ''Clássico'' took place in the quarterfinals of the Campeonato Brasileiro again in 1999, after Atlético finished 7th and Cruzeiro 2nd in the first stage. Atlético won the first match 4–2 and the second one 3–2. The topscorer of the championship, Guilherme, scored 4 goals against Cruzeiro and ''Galo'' advanced to the semi-finals.

Cruzeiro's largest win in the ''Clássico Mineiro'' was on December 4, 2011, in the last round of the Campeonato Brasileiro. The Foxes could be relegated for the first time if they lost the derby, but thrashed Atlético 6–1 at the Arena do Jacaré.

After Atlético winning the 2013 Copa Libertadores and the 2014 Recopa Sudamericana, and Cruzeiro winning the Campeonato Brasileiro in 2013 and 2014, both rivals made to the finals of the 2014 Copa do Brasil. This was the first time a national level tournament final featured both Belo Horizonte clubs. The first game took place at the Arena Independência and Atlético won 2–0. In the second match, Cruzeiro was the home team at Mineirão and ''Galo'' won again, by 1–0, being crowned champions of the competition for the first time.

The ''Superclássico Mineiro'' took place in the Copa do Brasil again in 2019, this time, in the quarterfinals. Cruzeiro won the first leg 3–0 at Mineirão and lost the second leg 2–0 at Independência, thus winning 3–2 on aggregate and advancing to the semi-finals.

The derby has already taken place outside Brazil twice. The first encounter was on January 17, 2009, for the semi-finals of the Uruguayan friendly tournament Copa Bimbo, in which Cruzeiro won 4–2 at the famous Estadio Centenário. The second match was on January 18, 2025, for the first round of the FC Series, at the Orlando City Stadium, in the United States. The match ended in a 0–0 draw and 22,743 people attended it.

Supporters

Supporters rivalry

The rivalry between the fanbases of Atlético and Cruzeiro is considered one of the most heated of Brazilian football and is seen in numerous provocative flags, tifos, chants and player celebrations towards the opposing side on derby days, in addition to cases of violent conflicts between groups of supporters. Regarding to nicknames, Atlético fans refer to Cruzeiro supporters as ''"marias"'', a play on the name of their rivals' main ''Torcida organizada'', Máfia Azul (Blue Mafia). Meanwhile, Cruzeiro fans call their rivals ''"frangas"'' (chickens), mocking Atlético's mascot, the rooster.

From 1965 to 2010, almost every derby between Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro took place at Mineirão, with the fans splitting the stadium in half. Cruzeiro supporters took the "city side", to the right of the press tribunes, while Atlético supporters occupied the "lake side", to the left. These names are a reference to the Pampulha Lake, next to the stadium. It also gave rise to the term "the other side of the lake" commonly used by fans to refer to their rivals.

Both fanbases claim to be the biggest one in Minas Gerais and the people's club of the state. On Atlético Mineiro's side, the club opened its doors to players from every social class, nationality or ethnicity from an early age, earning a status of a popular club. As a result of this vast popular support, the fans came to be collectively known as ''"A Massa"'' (The Mass). On Cruzeiro's side, the club was founded as the representative of the Italian colony of Belo Horizonte, and stood out for having a strong participation from the working class of the community, unlike Atlético and América, which were founded by upper-class students. Alluding to that, in 2015, Cruzeiro's marketing started using the "people's club" slogan, to which Atlético respodend in the same year, claiming to be the "true people's club".

Surveys

According to a 2014 Datafolha survey, reproduced by Globoesporte.com, the results are these:

*Atlético: 2% (4.1 million people).
* Cruzeiro: 3% (6.1 million people).

:Source
Datafolha
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According to a 2014 survey by IBOPE, reproduced by Globoesporte.com, the results are these:

*Atlético: 3.5% (7.1 million people).
* Cruzeiro: 3.1% (6.3 million people).

:Source
Ibope
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According to a 2023 survey by AtlasIntel, the results are these:

*Atlético: 4.3% of supporters.
* Cruzeiro: 6.1% of supporters.

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AtlasIntel
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According to a 2024 survey by Quaest, demanded by CNN Brazil and the Itatiaia radio network, the results are these:

*Atlético: 4% of supporters.
* Cruzeiro: 4% of supporters.

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Quaest
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Statistics

Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro have their own different versions of the statistics of the fixture. From the first derby on April 17, 1921, to the mid-1940s, there was no practice of registering the data and results of the games in an official summary. Atlético counts all the times the teams went to the playing field and faced each other. Cruzeiro says it does not consider games in which one of them played with their reserve team ("time de aspirantes"). Interestingly, however, there are matches that entered Cruzeiro's accounts that do not appear in Atlético's records.

Atlético Mineiro version

Cruzeiro version

Record by decade

The following statistics are taking into account Cruzeiro's version of the fixture.

All-time top scorers

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Superesportes
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All-time most appearances

*The player with most appearances in the ''Clássico'' for Cruzeiro is Fábio, with 65 matches.
*The player with most appearances in the ''Clássico'' for Atlético is João Leite, with 57 matches.
*Nelinho is the second player with most appearances in the ''Clássico'', with 37 matches for Cruzeiro and 27 for Atlético.

:Source
O Tempo
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Largest victories

From Atlético Mineiro:

From Cruzeiro:

Sources
CruzeiropédiaSuperesportes

Longest unbeaten runs

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Most consecutive wins

Statistics in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Record by stadium

Source
A história do Clássico Mineiro
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Doing the double

Since 2003, when the Campeonato Brasileiro adopted the round-robin system, one of the teams has beaten their rivals in both matches 7 times. The results are arranged based on the order in which the matches were played, from left to right.

Head-to-head ranking (2003–present)

• Total: Cruzeiro 12 times higher, Atlético 10 times higher.

Largest attendances

List of the 20 largest attendances in the history of the Clássico Mineiro.

Honours

Note: Although Cruzeiro considers itself champions of the Campeonato Mineiro in 1926, officially, Atlético Mineiro is the only champion of the competition in that year. Therefore, officially, Cruzeiro have 38 Campeonatos Mineiro titles.

Match history

List of games (Cruzeiro version)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Classico Mineiro
Cruzeiro EC
Football derbies in Brazil
Clube Atlético Mineiro
1921 establishments in Brazil