Gre–Nal

The Grenal (also Gre-Nal, plural Grenais), ongoing since 1909, is the rivalry between the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre's biggest football clubs, Grêmio and Internacional, usually contested in the '' Gauchão'', the Rio Grande do Sul state championship that both teams have won regularly since 1940, and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level national championship.

Being among the fiercest football derbies in Brazil, South America and the world, Grenais are considered a key cultural aspect of the Southern region of Brazil and particularly Rio Grande do Sul. High levels of emotion, competition and occasional violence accompany such matches.

In December 2020, FourFourTwo ranked the Grenal as the football world's 8th biggest derby.

History

Many well-known players have contested the Grenal, including Everaldo, Tesourinha, Aírton, Falcão, Éder, Valdomiro, Renato Gaúcho, Cláudio Taffarel, Dunga, Emerson, Carlos Gamarra, Ronaldinho, Elías Figueroa, Andrés D'Alessandro, Lucas Leiva, Marcelo Moreno, Nilmar, Pedro Geromel, Oscar, Walter Kannemann, Alexandre Pato, Alisson Becker, Arthur Melo, Everton Soares, Douglas Costa, Taison, Fernandão, Diego Forlán, Diego Costa and Luis Suárez, as well as world-famous coaches like Luiz Felipe Scolari, Abel Braga, Renato Gaúcho, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Telê Santana, Rubens Minelli, Valdir Espinosa, Paulo César Carpegiani and Ênio Andrade.

The first Grenal

On June 21, 1909, four representatives of Internacional met with their Grêmio equivalents in the Leopoldina Portoalegrense building to arrange the first meeting between the two clubs. Internacional, founded two months before, invited Grêmio to be its first opponents. The first match was held on June 27. With a game of previously arranged, Grêmio's president, Major Augusto Koch said that his team would face Internacional with the second table (reserve team). The leaders of Internacional demanded that their opponents played with their first team. Grêmio's board agreed. However, as the club's fixture list was full, the game would be held only in the following month.

The first Grenal occurred on Sunday, July 18, 1909, at Grêmio's Baixada Stadium. At 15:10, both teams entered the field of Baixada, preceded by the Presidents and the military band of the Brigade. The Grêmio players wore Sorority shirts divided vertically in half blue and half white, with black shorts. Internacional wore vertically striped shirts in red and white, with white shorts. The audience was estimated to be at 2000.

The referee was Waldemar Bromberg, assisted by João de Castro e Silva and H. Sommer, as well as "goal judges" Theobaldo Foernges Bugs and Theodoro. As there were no nets, said goal judges sat on a stool beside the goals indicating whether the ball had entered the goal or not.

After 10 minutes, Edgar Booth scored the first goal of the game and in the history of the derby. Edgar Booth went on to score four more goals. Four goals were scored by Júlio Grünewald and one by Moreira. The match ended at 10–0 to Grêmio, the biggest win in the history of Grenal.

Grenal of the Century

This match took place at Beira-Rio Stadium on February 12, 1989, being the 297th confrontation between these rival clubs, and it is called "Grenal of the Century" due to its unprecedented importance: it was the second leg of the semi-finals of 1988 Brazilian Championship, soon after the first leg, played at Olímpico Stadium, had ended with no goals.

Both teams came from great campaigns in the league. Internacional had a slight advantage, for if the match ended in a draw, Inter would qualify for the finals and 1989 Copa Libertadores. Teasers and agitation ruled in Porto Alegre.

The attendance was 78,083, in spite of the scorching heat of the summer afternoon: the thermometers marked 40 °C (104 °F).

Grêmio started the match playing better and, at the end of the first half, was winning the match by 1–0 with a goal scored by Marcus Vinicius at 25 minutes. With the red card showed to Inter's right back Casemiro at 38 minutes by referee Arnaldo Cézar Coelho, Grêmio's victory seemed very close.

Inter got better in the second half. At 61 minutes, a free kick favored Inter. Midfielder Edu Lima crossed the ball and Nílson, top scorer of the league, scored to make the match even.

It was Inter who kept pressing, and minutes after, in a counter-attack from the right side, midfielder Maurício passed through two defenders and shot. The ball was going to miss the goal when Nílson appeared behind the back of Grêmio's defense, to score again.

Internacional won the "Grenal of the Century" and qualified to the final match against Esporte Clube Bahia.

Other matches

The 435th Grenal, due to be held on Saturday, February 26, 2022, was postponed after fans of Internacional attacked Grêmio's bus with iron bars and rocks, which left Paraguayan Mathías Villasanti with a concussion. This would become the first-ever instance of a Grenal's postponement.

State rivalry

The rivalry of the Grenal reaches beyond football; it is a cultural reference for the Gaúchos. Football fans residing in Porto Alegre and rest the state of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as in much of Santa Catarina, Western Paraná and Northern Uruguay, identify strongly with either club, according to entrenched familial, cultural and social-demographic factors.

Grêmio was founded in 1903 by German immigrants from the Porto Alegre's industrious and commercial upper middle-class, mainly from the northern neighbourhoods from the city, who initially banned poor non-German players. Inter was founded by the children of Italian immigrants, in a meeting at the Second District, a bohemian, commercial and college neighborhood, so most of the first Inter players and supporters came from this reality: students from inner Rio Grande do Sul, Italian and Azorean immigrants that lived on the place. Inter has accepted black players since the early 1930s, while Grêmio only accepted black players such as Ronaldinho and Everaldo since the 1950s.

Statistics

Head to head results

Record by decade

Head-to-head ranking in the Campeonato Brasileiro (2003–present)

• Total: Internacional 12 times higher, Grêmio 10 times higher.

Doing the double in the Campeonato Brasileiro (2003–present)

Records

Largest wins

Longest unbeaten runs

Most consecutive wins

All-time top scorers

Highest attendances

*At the Beira-Rio Stadium (Internacional): Internacional 1–1 Grêmio; 85,075; 30 May 1971; Campeonato Gaúcho.
*At the Olímpico Stadium (Grêmio): Grêmio 1–1 Internacional, 72,893; 29 November 1981; Campeonato Gaúcho.
*At the Arena do Grêmio (Grêmio): Grêmio 0–0 Internacional, 53,389; 12 March 2020; Copa Libertadores.

Honours

Note (1): Although the Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup are officially different competitions, in Brazil they are often treated as the same tournament.

Note (2): Torneio Heleno Nunes is not considered a title, as the criterion for participation in it was the elimination of clubs in the Brazilian Championship, that is, it "rewarded failure" of participants in another competition.

References

{{Sport Club Internacional, state=collapsed

Football derbies in Brazil
Grêmio FBPA
SC Internacional
Nicknamed sporting events