Buenos Aires derby: Tom Hennigan, in Buenos Aires, on why the Boca Juniors-River Plate face-off does have a good claim to be the biggest derby game of them all

Ask any Argentinian to name the biggest derby game in world football and straight away the answer will come back "Boca-River".

Of course there are fans in places like Glasgow and Istanbul who would be as quick to nominate their own local head-to head. But when it comes to picking the world's biggest the Argentines might just be right with their nomination of Boca Juniors versus River Plate.

Argentina has respect. It has won two World Cups. Though little is known about it in Europe, its league battles Brazil's for the title Best in Latin America and its clubs have dominated the Copa Libertadores, South America's equivalent of the European Cup.

Boca Juniors and River Plate are the two strongest sides to emerge from this scene. Between them they have won 53 national championships, half of those contested in Argentina's history. They have been South American champions a combined seven times.

To go from Boca's ground to River's you only have to jump on the Number 29 bus. So a strong contender for top derby game. Can any of its competitors trump it?

Brazil has the same issue as England. With plenty of derbies none sticks out as greater or more significant than all the others. Brazil is one of the world's most democratic leagues with the spoils shared out liberally among a large pool of big clubs.

This means big city derbies in Brazil such as the Fla-Flu in Rio and Palmeiras-Corinthians in São Paulo have never come to grip the country's imagination as the centre of power continues its endless zig-zagging around the world's biggest footballing power.

"Boca-River" does have a good claim to be the biggest derby game of them all.

Buenos Aires's urban sprawl of 11 million people is home to more derbies than any other city in top-flight football. Well over half the teams in the Argentine championship come from there.

In 105 championships the title has only left the capital 12 times. All of the country's so-called big five teams come from there.

In Argentina derbies are called clásicos and it has to be a strange roll of the drum for a fixture list not to feature at least one Buenos Aires clásico in each round of the league. Therefore to distinguish these weekly clashes from the really big one, Argentinians refer to "Boca-River" as el superclásico.

It is the success of both Boca Juniors and River Plate that is the basis of their rivalry and its qualification for world's biggest derby.

The two most successful clubs in Argentina, they are perennial candidates for top honours, meaning their local derby has long evolved into far more than a battle for local bragging rights.

River have the most national titles - 32 to Boca's 20. But Boca have won the Copa Libertadores five times compared to two times for River.

Behind these stats lie many titanic games between the two clubs in both the league and the Copa in what is an endless battle for supremacy.

Last year's clashes provide a snapshot.

River first put one hand on their 32nd title by winning in Boca's legendary Bombonera Stadium, leapfrogging them to the top of the table where they stayed. Boca's revenge came several weeks later when they knocked River out of the Copa Libertadores. But that required a two-legged semi-final which saw numerous red cards, a mass brawl involving all players on the pitch and both benches (and which was only broken up by the intervention of riot police), memorable goals and a penalty shoot-out.

What is clear is that as in all the best football rivalries, Boca and River do not like each other. There is real antipathy between the two and players and staff make sure to spend time before every superclásico winding each other up.

River fans have a special loathing for Guillermo Barros Schelotto, idol of the Boca terrace who never passes up a chance to show his contempt for River.

Boca fans feel the same about Marcelo Gallardo, River's captain. On his last visit to Boca's stadium he tried to literally pull the face off Boca's goalkeeper during the mass brawl and was reluctant to apologise despite the next day revealing deep scars around his opponent's eye.

The rivalry is supposedly based on a history of class differences.

Boca Juniors are from the La Boca neighbourhood which is on the poorer south side of the city, down where the mouth (hence La Boca) of a heavily polluted river empties into the old docks.

River Plate, on the other hand, are from the wealthier north side, in the leafy suburb of Nuñez, where from the top of the stands you can see the muddy estuary after which the club is named.

Ironically though, River Plate were, in fact, the original La Boca team, founded there in 1901. Four years later, Boca Juniors were founded several blocks away. But within a few decades River became homeless and wandered around town until eventually settling in Nuñez.

Boca fans like to see their side as the working man's team. They have adopted with pride the insult bostero - manure collector (who picked up after city horses) - used by rival fans who also have composed songs calling the parents of Boca fans Bolivians and Paraguayans - Buenos Aires code for dirt poor and backward.

River's nickname Los Millionarios - The Millionaires - is a reflection of their perceived popularity among Argentina's middle and upper classes, though it was actually coined after the club pulled off the lucrative sale of a player in the 1930s.

In fact, such class distinctions hold little relevance any more, if they ever did. Both clubs have followings that transcend neighbourhood and class.

Many River fans come from humble backgrounds and for every home game a fleet of off-duty school buses is hired to take them from the rough edges of the Greater Buenos Aires rust belt into leafy Nuñez to stand on the terraces and watch their idols play.

Meanwhile, many of the seats at Boca home games are filled by members of the Buenos Aires professions paying some of the most expensive ticket prices in the country to watch their team. The club president of Boca, Mauricio Macri, the son of one of Argentina's wealthiest tycoons, leads his own political party and harbours ambitions to become the country's president.

Boca versus River has become such an enthralling fixture, with these long-time local rivals competing with each other for so many prizes, their respective fan bases have long since expanded beyond the boundaries of Buenos Aires and now include followers from across Argentina and further afield in South America.

Apart from the history of rivalry between them, what divides the clubs now as much as anything are different football philosophies.

Boca, once the team of Maradona, are capable of fluent, attacking football but the club ethos is focused on the team's work ethic and an ability to grind out results when things are not going their way.

River have always been committed to a more expansive style of play. Their dedication to all-out attack was epitomised by their famous five-man forward line from the 1950s that was known as "The Machine" and swept all before it.

Boca fans sniff at this and claim River often fail at crucial moments, calling their rivals gallinas - chickens - and pecho frio, which can be loosely translated at bottlers.

'Cloggers', reply River fans holding up their 32 titles, which will invariably bring Boca fans around to their five Libertadores triumphs . . .

"Boca or River?" It is the football question that endlessly obsesses one of the world's most football-obsessed cities. In the week before el superclásico all the old debates will be trotted out on the football programmes that hog the radio waves, great matches from the past will be reshown on cable and fans will queue up for a ticket, desperate not to be one of the thousands chased away by police when the inevitable sold-out sign goes up.

Then the country will stop for the game itself on Sunday afternoon. Scenes of agony and ecstasy will take place in the jammed-packed stadium and in cafes and bars and living-rooms around the city. Anyone trying to avoid the game needs to head for the quiet of the country as every goal is met in each neighbourhood with shouts and car horns.

Then once the final whistle goes around 6pm everyone will start turning over the latest evidence in search of the answer to that enduring Buenos Aires question: "Boca or River?"