Grenal

Grenal

Grenal in 2012 at the Estádio Olímpico Monumental
Other names	Gre-Nal
Location	Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Teams	Grêmio Internacional
First meeting	Grêmio 10–0 Internacional Friendly match 18 July 1909
Latest meeting	Internacional 1–0 Grêmio 2024 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 19 October 2024
Stadiums	Arena do Grêmio (Grêmio) Beira-Rio (Internacional)
Statistics
Meetings total	443
Top scorer	Carlitos (40)
All-time record	Internacional: 164 Grêmio: 141 Draw: 138

Grêmio

Internacional

Grenal is the name of the football derby between two of Brazil's biggest clubs, both located in the city of Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul: Gre refers to Grêmio and Nal refers to Internacional.

The Grenal is one of the fiercest football rivalries in Brazil, South America and the world. It is accompanied by high levels of emotion, competition and occasional violence. The fixture is considered a cultural mark of the South Region of Brazil and in particular the Rio Grande do Sul, as it divides the state in half and has been ongoing since 1909. The Grenal is considered the main match of the Gauchão (the Rio Grande do Sul state championship), with both teams winning the competition regularly since 1940, and it is also a regular fixture in the Brasileirão (the Brazilian championship).

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

History

The grenal is one of the fiercest football rivalries in South America. Many well-known players have competed in grenal games, including: Everaldo, Tesourinha, Aírton, Falcão, Éder, Valdomiro, Renato Gaúcho, Taffarel, Dunga, Emerson, Carlos Gamarra, Ronaldinho, Elías Figueroa, D’Alessandro, Lucas Leiva, Marcelo Moreno, Nilmar, Pedro Geromel, Oscar, Walter Kannemann, Alexandre Pato, Alisson Becker, Arthur Melo, Everton Soares, Douglas Costa, Taison, Fábio Bilica, Diego Forlán, Diego Costa and Luis Suárez.

The derby has also seen world-famous coaches such as Luiz Felipe Scolari, Abel Braga, Renato Gaúcho, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Telê Santana, Rubens Minelli, Valdir Espinosa, Paulo César Carpegiani and Ênio Andrade manage a game.

The first Grenal

Matchday programme of the first Grenal in 1909

On June 21, 1909, four representatives of Internacional met with representatives of Grêmio in the company's headquarters, Leopoldina Portoalegrense, 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 Fuss-Ball [sic] 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 derby occurred on July 18, 1909, on a Sunday, at the Baixada Stadium in Porto Alegre (which belonged to Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense). 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 of the match was Waldemar Bromberg, the assistants were João de Castro e Silva and H. Sommer, and goal judges Theobaldo Foernges Bugs and Theodoro. The goal judges sat on a stool beside the goal areas, indicating whether the ball entered the goal or not, because at the time there were no nets in the goals.

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

Grenal in 1940 for the Porto Alegre City Championship

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

On Saturday, February 26, 2022, Grenal 435 was cancelled and postponed for the first time in its history after fans of Internacional attacked Grêmio's bus with an iron bars and rocks, which left athlete Mathías Villasanti with a head trauma and concussion.

State rivalry

Grenal in 2007

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

	Matches	Wins		Draws
		GRE	INT
Campeonato Gaúcho	177	55	59	63
Campeonato Citadino	101	39	44	18
Copa Sul	2	0	1	1
Campeonato Sul-Brasileiro	2	1	0	1
Copa Sul-Minas	1	0	0	1
Primeira Liga	1	0	0	1
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A	72	24	26	22
Copa do Brasil	2	0	0	2
Seletiva Nacional da Libertadores	2	0	0	2
Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores	2	1	0	1
Copa CONMEBOL Sudamericana	4	1	1	2
Other tournaments and friendly games	77	20	33	24
All matches	443	141	164	138

Record by decade

Decade	Matches	Grêmio wins	Inter wins	Draws
1901–1909	1	1	0	0
1910–1919	12	7	5	0
1920–1929	18	11	4	3
1930–1939	30	14	10	6
1940–1949	49	7	32	10
1950–1959	40	11	16	13
1960–1969	42	16	13	13
1970–1979	59	12	24	23
1980–1989	50	16	13	21
1990–1999	43	14	12	17
2000–2009	34	10	13	11
2010–2019	44	13	14	17
2020–2029	20	9	8	4
Total	443	141	164	138

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

P.	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
1
2			2	2		2	2				2							2		2	2
3				3						3		3	3			3
4								4							4	4	4
5									5				5
6	6				6	6												6
7								7				7					7
8		8					8
9														9							9
10										10
11					11
12									12										12
13											13
14
15
16
17														17					17
18
19
20	20
21
22
23
24		24
Série B
1			1
2															2					2

• Total: Internacional 11 times higher, Grêmio 10 times higher.

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

Season	Team	Home result	Away result
2004	Internacional	2–0	1–3
2007	Grêmio	1–0	0–2
2024	Internacional	1–0	0–1

Records

Largest wins

Winning margin	Result	Date	Competition
10	Grêmio 10–0 Internacional	18 July 1909	Friendly match
9	Internacional 1–10 Grêmio	18 June 1911	Campeonato Citadino
7	Grêmio 0–7 Internacional	17 October 1948	Campeonato Citadino
6	Grêmio 6–0 Internacional	23 June 1912	Campeonato Citadino
	Grêmio 0–6 Internacional	1 November 1938	Taça Martel
5	Grêmio 5–0 Internacional	17 July 1910	Campeonato Citadino
	Internacional 6–1 Grêmio	30 July 1916	Campeonato Citadino
	Grêmio 1–6 Internacional	4 January 1940	Campeonato Citadino
	Grêmio 5–0 Internacional	9 August 2015	Campeonato Brasileiro

Longest unbeaten runs

Games	Club	Period	Results
17	Internacional	17 October 1971 – 13 July 1975	10 wins and 7 draws
16	Internacional	1 May 1947 – 7 September 1949	11 wins and 5 draws
13	Grêmio	16 June 1999 – 26 October 2002	8 wins and 5 draws
12	Internacional	11 January 1942 – 28 May 1944	9 wins and 3 draws
	Grêmio	31 May 1987 – 9 February 1989	6 wins and 6 draws
11	Internacional	17 August 1952 – 9 January 1955	7 wins and 4 draws
	Grêmio	17 March 2019 – 3 October 2020	6 wins and 5 draws

Most consecutive wins

Games	Club	Period
6	Grêmio	18 July 1909 – 8 June 1913
	Grêmio	14 September 1919 – 27 April 1924
	Grêmio	28 July 1931 – 13 August 1933
	Grêmio	14 August 1977 – 20 August 1978
5	Internacional	11 July 1943 – 28 May 1944
	Internacional	1 May 1947 – 26 October 1947
	Internacional	1 November 1953 – 26 September 1954
	Internacional	24 March 1974 – 13 July 1975

All-time top scorers

Goals	Player	Club
40	Carlitos	Internacional
21	Villalba	Internacional
18	Luiz Carvalho	Grêmio
16	Adãozinho	Internacional
	Tesourinha	Internacional
12	Alcindo	Grêmio
11	Acácio	Internacional
	Bodinho	Internacional
	Foguinho	Grêmio

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

Competitions	Grêmio	Internacional
Brazilian Championship	2	3
Brazil Cup	5	1
Brazil Supercup	1	-
Copa Libertadores	3	2
Copa Sudamericana	-	1
Recopa Sudamericana	2	2
Suruga Bank Championship	-	1
FIFA Club World Cup/Intercontinental Cup	1	1
Total	14	11
Other Competitions	Grêmio	Internacional
Gaúcho Championship	43	45
FGF Cup	1	2
Recopa Gaúcha	4	2
Copa Sul/Campeonato Sul Brasileiro	2	-
Torneio Heleno Nunes	-	1
Total General	64	61

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.