History

Al Jazira were founded in 1974 after the merger of two football clubs, Al Khalidiya and Al Bateen. In the past, the club has attracted huge foreign names such as Balon d’Or winner, George Weah and former Juventus striker Mirko Vucinic. 

More recently, ‘The Pride of Abu Dhabi’ have found domestic success winning their second UAE Pro League title in 2017. The club, chaired by Manchester City Owner Sheikh Mansour, are also three-time winners of the President’s Cup.

Although Al Wahda are officially 10 years younger than their city rivals, the club traces its roots to the merger of a few clubs, the older of which, Al Ahli were established in 1966. 

The Clarets have won the league title on four occasions, and added two President’s Cups and two Super Cup trophies to their cabinet. Al Wahda’s best Asian performance came in 2007 when they reached the AFC Champions League semi-finals.

The arch-rivals will be gunning for more than just bragging rights as both teams look to continue their unbeaten starts to the league campaign.

In this part of the-AFC.com's “Great Asian Derbies” series, we take a closer look at what makes this fixture so special.

History

The two Riyadh clubs date back to the early days of organised football activity in the Saudi midlands of Najd in the 1950s.

Brothers Zaid and Hussain Al Jab’a established Al Nassr club in the old centre of Riyadh in 1955.

The name of the club means 'Victory' in Arabic and its now famous yellow and blue colours were chosen to represent the Arabian desert and the surrounding seas respectively. 

The two teams will face off on Thursday, when the city of Tehran will see itself divided in two as high-flying Persepolis meet an Esteghlal side struggling in the Iran Pro League’s lower reaches in front of what will be an expectant and vibrant Azadi Stadium.

History

The establishing of the two clubs couldn’t be further apart. Esteghlal were founded in 1945 as Docharkhe Savaran – ‘The Cyclists’ – and was initially solely a cycling club, before other sports, among them football, were later introduced.

Blue was already the official colour by the time Esteghlal were bought in 1949 by an army general, whose first action was to change its name to Taj – ‘Crown’ – before the current name, which translates as ‘Independence’, was adopted in 1979.

History