Croatia–Serbia football rivalry

On 13 May 1990, Dinamo Zagreb hosted Red Star Belgrade at the Maksimir Stadium in Yugoslav First League. It was just weeks after Croatia's first election, in the middle of ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia. The game was interrupted after only ten minutes, as Dinamo's ultras Bad Blue Boys and Red Star's ultras Delije started the infamous riot. The incident remained remembered for Zvonimir Boban kicking a militia officer, after seeing him beating a Dinamo ultra. Subsequently, Boban was suspended for six months by the Yugoslavian FA and expelled from Yugoslavia squad for 1990 FIFA World Cup.[2]

On 3 June 1990, a friendly match between Yugoslavia and the Netherlands took place at the Maksimir Stadium and was the last friendly before the 1990 FIFA World Cup. The crowd of 20,000 booed the Yugoslav national anthem "Hey, Slavs".[3] Fans cheered for the Netherlands, heckling the Yugoslav team and their manager Ivica Osim.[4] Many Dutch flags were also seen in the crowd, owing to their similarity to the Croatian tricolour.[5] The match was the last Yugoslavia match to be played at the stadium.[6] On 17 October of that same year Croatia played its first international match at the stadium against the United States.

The first meeting between Croatia and Serbia, the latter playing as FR Yugoslavia, happened on 18 August 1999 at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade, as part of UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying. The match ended as a goalless draw. The match remained memorable for power outage at the stadium that allegedly intimidated the Croatian players.[7] The return game at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb was played on 9 October 1999 and it was a deciding match for Croatia, as they needed a victory to qualify for the tournament. Ten minutes into the game, Aljoša Asanović passes the ball to Davor Šuker who shoots, but Ivica Kralj rebounds the shot. Even though the ball was over the goal line, Spanish referee José María García-Aranda ruled the goal out. In 20th minute, Alen Bokšić opened the scoreline. However, Yugoslavia came from behind with goals by Predrag Mijatović and Dejan Stanković in 26th and 31st respective minute. In a duel between Zoran Mirković and Robert Jarni, the former grabbed the latter by the genitalia and received a straight red card. The incident motivated Croatia even more resulting in Mario Stanić's equalizer in 47th minute. The third goal that would've taken Croatia to the tournament never came, as Josip Šimić who came on for Bokšić wasted the best chance the team had.[8] It was this elimination that saw Croatia entered a phrase of crisis that lasted for eight years.

Croatia and now independent Serbia met again 14 years later in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. The first match was played on 22 March 2013 at the Maksimir Stadium and ended up as a 2–0 victory for Croatia following goals by Mario Mandžukić and Ivica Olić.[9] The return game was played on 6 September 2013 at the Red Star Stadium and ended up as a 1–1 draw. Croatia took the lead after Mandžukić scored in 53rd minute but Serbia equalized in 66th minute through Aleksandar Mitrović.[7] In 80th minute, Josip Šimunić brutally tackled Miralem Sulejmani as the latter was running all by himself towards the Croatia goal. As a result he received a straight red card.[10][11] Croatia finished the qualification as the group runners-up and went on to beat Iceland 2–0 on aggregate in the play-offs. Serbia ended up third in the group with three points less than Croatia and subsequently not qualifying for the tournament.

On 30 November 2019, a draw for UEFA Euro 2020 placed Croatia in the same group as the winner of the qualifying play-offs Path C. Having topped their group in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League C and failing to qualify through regular qualifiers, Serbia secured their spot in the play-offs.[12]