Andalusia's flagship fixture: how a 1907 split, a thrown bottle and a Pellegrini revival made El Gran Derbi Spain's most charged

On 30 November 2025, the Seville derby was halted for fifteen minutes at the Sánchez Pizjuán while Real Betis players hid from objects raining out of the south stand. Pablo Fornals had scored in the 54th, Sergi Altimira had made it two in the 68th, and Sevilla were a man down after Isaac Romero's red. The bottles came in the 88th. It was the same stadium, almost the same script as February 2007, when a glass bottle knocked Sevilla manager Juande Ramos unconscious in a Copa tie at Betis. Eighteen years on, El Gran Derbi has not been tamed. Across 145 official meetings, this fixture produces more abandoned matches and more genuinely consequential football than any Spanish derby outside the capital.