A rivalry was born on this day.

The final game of the season between Chelsea and Liverpool became a straight shootout for a Champions League spot.

Chelsea fans coveted it, and Liverpool fans demanded it.

Gerrard Houllier and Claudio Ranieri were in the dugouts for this battle.

Liverpool grabbed an early lead through Sami Hyypia with a header at the back post.

Within minutes Chelsea equalised, and Marcel Dessailly scored with a header of his own.

Before the half-hour mark Jesper Gronkjaer scored a curling effort into the bottom corner.

Gianfranco Zola mesmerised fans with some wizardry as the Italian said goodbye to seven amazing years at Stamford Bridge.

For Liverpool the day got worse as their talisman Steven Gerrard was sent off for a high foot challenge on Graeme Le Saux.

Chelsea won the match and finished the season in fourth place three points ahead of Liverpool in fifth.

More importantly and unbeknownst to anyone at the stadium bar a few in the top echelons of the Blues, they were about to be taken over by a Russian billionaire oligarch and change English football forever.

Since that game between Chelsea and Liverpool, a fierce rivalry has grown.

They fought on the pitch for league titles and European glory, and the rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez became iconic.

A rivalry so grand, ex Liverpool player, Jamie Carragher even said on Sky Sports that at one point it became bigger than the rivalry with Manchester United.

Liverpool despised the new money and Chelsea hated the lack of respect shown, all fuel for the fire lit that day.

1989 saw wild title fight to finish the decade, the dominance by Liverpool that decade making it all the more enjoyable.

At the beginning of this match in 1989, Arsenal was at the top trying to sustain a lead over Norwich City and Millwall.

Whilst reigning champions Liverpool as well as Nottingham Forest were in hot pursuit.

This game was vital for Forest as Brian Clough’s men needed a win to stay within touching distance of the leaders.

The Gunners wanted a win to keep a five-point lead over the Canaries.

Forest took the lead early on, Nigel Clough managed to break Arsenal’s offside trap.

However, Alan Smith stroked the ball into the back of the net from a corner and both teams were on level terms.

Forest would not be fazed by this and Franz Carr also beat the offside trap, sat Tony Adams down in the box, and slotted the ball past the Arsenal keeper.

Forest would make it 3-1 moments later with a thumping free kick by Stuart Pearce.

The game finished 3-1 for Forest, the title race being blown wide open with two months left.

Arsenal would stumble a bit and almost let Liverpool win the league but on the final day the Gunners won 2-0 at Anfield in an iconic game.

Nottingham Forest unfortunately just couldn’t get back into the title race properly, they would finish third pipping Norwich to the podium.

In the mid-1990s Newcastle and Aston Villa were two strong teams chasing for a place in Europe with Newcastle hoping for more.

The Magpies had started the season well, they were sitting in second coming into the game with Arsenal just behind and Liverpool just ahead.

The Villans had also started quite well and were looking to break into the top four.

Villa’s star striker Dwight Yorke had yet to get his season underway, but he did so with a fine header inside four minutes.

For Newcastle, both Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer were having their own golden boot race with four goals apiece in the first six matches.

It was Shearer who set up Ferdinand for the leveller.

A fantastic cross by Keith Gillespie was met by an unmarked Ferdinand who floated in mid-air before thundering a header past the Villa goalkeeper.

Shearer squeezed in a third as Newcastle let loose on the Villa defence.

Villa’s Mark Draper was sent off for a wild challenge and Villa went in at half-time deflated.

However, it wasn’t done and dusted, Villa was spurred on with a resilient performance by Yorke with the ball set up nicely, he took his second.

Newcastle went 4-2 ahead with a brilliant Steve Howey header.

At the other end, Yorke completed his hat-trick slotting the ball home after he found himself one-on-one with the keeper.

Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Aston Villa all fell short of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Newcastle would finish second after a turbulent season whilst Aston Villa would finish fifth.

Few games in the history of women’s football have been as important as the USA vs China match in the 1999 FIFA women’s World Cup final.

It changed the history of women’s football not only at the national level in America but also at the international level with more and more countries taking women’s football seriously.

Up until 1999, most countries didn’t even have a professional league system in place, there was not much sponsorship and wages were practically non-existent.

The USA team, in particular, was treated pretty badly by their own Football Federation as women demanded at least some wages and generally a bit more respect.

It’s not like the team had not won the inaugural Women’s World Cup in 1991 or even the inaugural women’s football tournament at the Olympics, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.

The team felt like it deserved a lot more respect for getting gold medals.

However, the USSF (United States Soccer Federation) did not budge an inch in the wage dispute.

With threats of a boycott of their home World Cup, finally the USSF folded on certain points.

The game itself was billed as the battle of the powerhouses both China and America were vying for supremacy in women’s football at the time.

The USA had star striker Mia Hamm whilst China was reliant on their own superstar, Sun Wen.

The game passed without much action and went all the way to penalties.

China went first and was the first to blink as Liu Ying’s penalty was saved by Briana Scurry, the pouncing US keeper jumping far off her line to parry the ball away.

All the other penalties were scored as both Hamm and Sun kept the shoot-out alive.

It was down to Brandi Chastain who duly finished it off and the USA were World champions once more.

And yet, more importantly with 90,000 fans inside the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California and all the publicity that duly came with being a World champion women’s football never looked back.

The celebration on the pitch, the support from the fans and now 24 years on there are leagues the World over and a 32-team World Cup watched by millions.

Vincent Kompany will face his former team on Friday night at Turf Moor.

As a manager in the Championship, he has proven himself an astute and intelligent leader.

However, his reputation as a fearless and strong captain comes from his many years with the armband at Manchester City winning four league titles.

That being said, one game that Kompany would like to forget as City captain, is this 2015 trip to Turf Moor to face the Clarets.

A star-studded team had hit the rocks somewhat as reigning champions they failed to really mount a challenge against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

Even with the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero City failed to find the net on this Saturday evening.

Burnley had just been promoted back to the top tier after four years away but were struggling to survive.

City’s misery in front of goal was compounded as a rocket shot across the floor from George Boyd after a poor clearance by the City defence.

The game finished 1-0 and this is to date the last time Burnley beat Manchester City in the league, the first time they did so since 1974.

City would finish their season eight points behind Chelsea in second place whilst Burnley would be relegated in 19th position alongside Queens Park Rangers and Hull City.

Kompany will be hoping he can inspire Burnley to a great start to the season with a rare victory against the club where he became a legend.