Welcome to the history of the game, every weekend there are fantastic fixtures across all of sports that have a bit of history. Every week, this series of articles will investigate one match in the history of ten great fixtures to build them up ahead of the next weekend.

For this first rewind, we will be heavily dominated by football with some great Premier League fixtures plus some interesting European fixtures and the Women’s FA Cup final. We also have some playoff basketball with two great rivalries potentially concluding the latest chapter. Let’s take a dive into the history of these games…

Just over 20 years ago, these two great teams were chasing European dreams and Premier League titles.

A Christmas cracker (excuse the cliché) as the Magpies travelled to Leeds with both teams hoping to be top at Christmas. Newcastle was first heading into the game one point from third-placed Leeds with just Liverpool separating the two.

The two squads had exceptional players with Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy leading the line for Newcastle whilst Robbie Fowler and Mark Viduka were up front for Leeds. Bellamy opened the scoring, allowed to run free into the box, a young Rio Ferdinand losing his bearings. Lee Bowyer equalised a minute later tearing through the defence and firing past Shay Given.

In the second half Viduka’s sweet turn in the box separated him from his marker just enough to slot Leeds into the lead, a few minutes later a rocket by Ian Harte made it three. The legendary Sir Bobby Robson did not want his team to give up so easily and just three minutes later Robbie Elliott headered Newcastle back into the game.

Alan Shearer equalised from the spot with 20 minutes to go to set up the grandstand finish and Nolberto Solano was played through by Kieron Dyer in the final minute. It was game set and match, cue bedlam in the away end, Newcastle was top at Christmas.

A Monday night football fixture between two teams who aspired of breaking the big four come the end of the season.

Spurs had started the season poorly but were hoping for the anniversary of the club’s first-ever match in 1882 to rejuvenate Spurs’ challenge, so a special one-off kit was released for the occasion. The weekend had already produced one of the greatest games in Premier League history as Portsmouth beat Reading 7-4 on Saturday.

Tottenham were playing with a front three of Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale and Robbie Keane and it was the Bulgarian striker who put Spurs ahead with a bullet header. Paul Robinson had a nightmare and dropped the ball in the box for Martin Laursen to score a tap-in.

If the first goal for Villa wasn’t bad enough from the former England keeper, the second Laursen goal went straight through his hands. Gabriel Agbonlahor made it 3-1 before half time for the party crashers and continued with another goal after half time for Craig Gardner.

Tottenham finally sprung back into action through Pascal Chimbonda. Robbie Keane slotted one in from the penalty spot to make it 4-3 and in the final seconds, Younes Kaboul fired a rocket into the roof of the net to bring Spurs level.

A truly fitting tribute to Tottenham’s 125^th anniversary.

We are travelling way back in history now, with this gem from the 1950s.

A time when Wolves and United were two of the emerging superpowers of English football. Both had already won a league title that decade and they were looking to add more. Sir Matt Busby had transformed Manchester United from a yo-yo team in the interwar period to a serious contender. Busby based his youthful strategy around his babes including Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton who didn’t play in this game.

On the other side, Stan Cullis was transforming football with his electric Wolves team of the 50’s built around Billy Wright. Wolves’ success in European fixtures in the 1950s forced a Frenchman to invent the European Champions Cup to prove that English clubs weren’t the best in Europe.

United took the lead through David Pegg in the first half, before a back-and-forth between the two teams ensued in the final half an hour. Wolves equalised with Bill Slater and made it 2-1 with Roy Swinbourne.

With ten minutes to go Wolves were 3-2 up, Roy Swinbourne completing a brace. United would score two more late goals, John Doherty scored the first, and Tommy Taylor would net his second goal and the winner. The Red Devils would win the first of two league titles in a row that season.

Sadly, the Munich Air disaster would temporarily stop their meteoric rise and Wolves would take over with two league titles of their own to close off this decade.  

Once upon a time, the Old Firm was loaded with brilliant footballers.

Every game was exhilarating with league titles going to the final day, both teams would be regularly in Europe, even reaching finals. Those days are gone for now, unfortunately, but back in 2002, the first game of the season was a masterpiece to prove the point.

Celtic had Henrik Larsson, their superb Swede is a living legend for the hoops. He scored twice in this derby adding to his overall Old Firm tally, he finished with 15 in his career and is amongst the highest scorers in the fixture. His first, the equaliser, was a magnificent turn and volley, his second was a brilliant header.

Rangers were fortunate with some of their goals Mikel Arteta scored a long-range effort that bounced off the keeper. Ronald De Boer grabbed himself a goal to make it 2-2 and Shota Arveladze scored a very bizarre pinball goal to put Rangers in the lead. Chris Sutton scored Celtic’s third and the game finished 3-3.

Rangers won the league by one goal difference as both clubs finished on 97 points.

Another great game in this fixture which is littered with them.

The next two games on this list have an abundance of Bundesliga history, but in 2011 they have particular significance due to the players playing.

Before Bayern Munich destroyed all before them in Germany for 10 years straight, they would have rivals, one of the clubs that would try and topple the Bavarian giants is Schalke. The Royal Blues already beat Bayern in Gelsenkirchen 2-0 and even knocked them out of the DFB Pokal in Munich before going on to win it. Schelke would reach the Champions League semi-finals in a very successful season away from the league.

All of this was possible with the fantastic keeper Manuel Neuer. On this occasion Bayern got their revenge, they don’t handle losing to anyone at all well. Arjen Robben, Thomas Mueller with a brace, and Mario Gomez all scored to punish Schalke for daring to believe they were better than Die Rotten.

That summer they signed Manuel Neuer as further punishment and thus started the fast decline of Schalke.

One week earlier a Borussia derby prevented Dortmund from wrapping up the league title too early.

Monchengladbach were struggling that season whilst Dortmund was on their march for a first league title in nine years under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp. However, Monchengladbach had a young star in their ranks who was attracting a lot of attention in Germany, including Dortmund.

His name is Marco Reus, he scored in the reverse fixture, and in this game his influence allowed Monchengladbach to beat their namesake rivals. Dortmund’s team contained the likes of Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski, and Mats Hummels nevertheless, the Black and Yellows, bought Reus in the summer of 2012.

Poor Reus is quite unfortunate though, his career at Dortmund has been overshadowed by the dominance of Bayern. Mohamadou Idrissou scored the only goal of the game and Monchengladbach would survive through the playoff vs Bochum.

The loss would not stop Dortmund from being crowned champions of Germany one week later for the 7^th time.

This weekend is the 53^rd Women’s FA Cup final, between modern giants and four-time winners Chelsea against newcomers Manchester United.

United could complete a double in the next few weeks for their first trophies, however, there was a time not so long ago when Chelsea was an emerging superpower club. Back in 2018, Chelsea played against Arsenal in the final, a major rivalry in women’s football and the test Chelsea needed to pass to reach the next level.  Arsenal is the supreme Empresses of English football they have 14 FA cups coming into the cup final and had beaten Chelsea two years previously.

Chelsea Had only won one Cup beating Notts County back in 2015. Wembley stadium had broken yet another record for women’s game. Ramona Bachmann scored twice for the Blues in the second half and Vivienne Miedema pulled one back for the Gunners. Chelsea legend Fran Kirby put the game to bed once and for all.

Chelsea has not looked back since winning the double that season and three more league titles and two more FA cups since. Manchester United needs to use this game as a benchmark just like Chelsea did back in 2018.

Many people could be forgiven if they thought Barcelona are the only team to play in the capital of Catalunya, Espanyol fans don’t forgive so easily.

Whilst not as big as derbies in Madrid or Seville this fixture has served some tasty moments. The disparity between the two sides is exacerbated by the large difference in the size of the trophy rooms. Leo Messi was just a young kid at this time with great potential and didn’t play this game.

The stars of the Barcelona team for this game were Ronaldinho, Xavi, and Andres Iniesta. They were reigning European and Spanish champions under Frank Rijkaard whereas local rivals Espanyol had won their Fourth Copa Del Rey.

It was the White and Blue who opened the score in the first half through their top striker Luis Garcia (not the ex-Liverpool player). Barcelona did level the score with Javier Saviola, but Espanyol had other plans. A flurry of late goals by Francisco Rufete and club legend Raul Tamudo gave Espanyol a rare 3-1 victory over Barcelona.

Espanyol has only won 44 derbies in all competitions and has not finished above Barcelona in the league since 1942. But this result and the reverse fixture’s two-all draw stopped Barcelona from winning the league after losing the head-to-head against Real Madrid.

There is a lot of similarity between the 2023 NBA Playoffs and the 1977 NBA Playoffs.

The first of which is the Lakers playing the Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals. The Lakers built a title-winning team around Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Warriors had been crowned champions in 1975 on the back of their superstar player Rick Barry who was the finals MVP.

The rivalry had been brewing as both teams have been two of the best on the west coast for the past 15 years. The Lakers twice took the lead in this series, but the Warriors would not give up. The final game seven, two words that send shivers down the spine of American sports fans, was a tight and intense affair.

Kareem “the Dream” had hit a minimum of 40 points in four of the games in this series. He also got six double-doubles (points & rebounds) proving how vital he is to the Lakers organisation.

In this match, he made it seven out of seven double-doubles, he scored 36 points and made 26 rebounds. The game finished 97-84 to the Lakers who progressed. Unfortunately for the Warriors this would be their last playoff match in ten years.

The Lakers would lose to the Portland Trail Blazers in the conference finals.

The second similarity is the Celtics facing the 76ers.

In one of the most played matches in NBA playoffs history, Boston and Philadelphia are facing each other in the playoffs for the 23^rd time, an NBA record. The Celtics have been on top for most of the rivalry and had won seven of the previous eight series between the two prior to 1977.

In the 60’s the rivalry was between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, the ’70s was all about John Havlicek and Julius Erving, this series proved exactly that. Philadelphia had not beaten their arch-rivals in ten years in the process Boston had built a dynasty since 1958. Philadelphia needed a victory to restore some form of parity in the rivalry.

Boston had just taken the series to game seven but the 76ers proved to be dominant in this final game, taking the lead in the first quarter and never looking back. Philadelphia won 83-77 to move out of the shadow of their illustrious rivals.

They would lose in the finals to the Portland Trail Blazers. Is this an omen for the Phoenix Suns or the Denver Nuggets, who knows, but the similarities are there 46 years later.

*The games are dependent on the prior games this week, currently Lakers are 3-1 up over the Warriors and Celtics vs 76ers series is tied 2-2.