The New Zealand Derby (), also known as the Kiwi Clásico, or Kiwi Derby is a local football derby in the

A-League Men A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's top soccer league, between the two

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-based clubs in the league:

Auckland FC Auckland Football Club, commonly known as Auckland FC, is a professional football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the A-League Men, the top flight of Australian soccer. Established on 14 March 2024, the club is under lic ...

and

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

Name

The nickname is derived from

El Clásico El Clásico (in Spanish, also in lowercase letters; ) or El Clàssic (in Catalan, ), both meaning "The Classic", is the name given to any football match between rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions he ...

, the rivalry between

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, one of the largest sporting rivalries in the world. The name was officially announced by the

A-Leagues The Australian Professional Leagues, officially abbreviated to the APL, and sometimes referred to as the A-Leagues, are the governing body for the A-League Men, A-League Women, A-League Youth and E-League. Since their formation, they have been ...

prior to the kickoff of the

2024–25 A-League Men The 2024–25 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 48th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 20th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004. Central Co ...

season, the first season since Auckland FC were founded in 2024. However, the rivalry is more commonly referred to as the New Zealand Derby, especially in New Zealand.

History

The first meeting of the two clubs was on 2 November 2024, at

Sky Stadium Wellington Regional Stadium (commercially known as Sky Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. The stadium's bowl site size is . The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and is situa ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

in Round 3 of the 2024–25 season. The match was played in front of 26,252 spectators in attendance. the match would finish in a 2–0 win for Auckland, thanks to a clean sheet from former Wellington player

Alex Paulsen Alexander Noah Paulsen (born 4 July 2002) is a New Zealand footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club AFC Bournemouth and the New Zealand national team. Born in Auckland, Paulsen joined the Wellington Phoenix in 2018. Initial ...

and goals by

Jake Brimmer Jake William Brimmer (born 3 April 1998) is an Australian soccer player who plays as a central midfielder for A-League club Auckland FC. Club career Brimmer began to show his skills at the Rowville Sports Academy and with his junior club Nuna ...

in the 89th minute and the 90+6th minute. To celebrate their win, after the match Auckland hired a digital billboard outside Sky Stadium, which read "Welcome to Ellington. We took the W back to Auckland". The second match was played at Go Media Stadium in front of a crowd of 26,253 and ended 2–1 to Auckland. It was this game where Auckland conceded their first ever competitive goal, scored by Kosta Barbarouses. In their third meeting, also at Go Media Stadium, Auckland triumphed again with their largest winning margin against any team to date, 6–1, including the club's first hattrick, scored by Logan Rogerson.

Results

Head-to-head

Records

Biggest wins

Most goals in a match

Most consecutive wins

Highest Attendance

Statistics

Players

Top goalscorers

Clean sheets

Hat-tricks

One player has scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in official Kiwi Clásico matches.

Managers

Most appearances

Most wins

References

{{Wellington Phoenix FC Auckland FC Wellington Phoenix FC Football rivalries in New Zealand Sport in Auckland Sport in Wellington