Piraeus derby

Since the two clubs were established in the mid-1920s, Ethnikos' traditional local rival has been Olympiacos CFP, one of the two most popular and successful multi-sport clubs in Greece along with Panathinaikos.[1][2]

While a legitimate rivalry between Ethnikos and Olympiacos still exists in water polo (Ethnikos Piraeus Water Polo Club has won the most Greek water polo championships of any club, while Olympiacos Water Polo Club has won the second-most),[3] that is no longer the case in football.

Ethnikos and Olympiacos F.C. were more or less evenly matched and had great battles for Piraeus supremacy in the 1920s and 1930s,[4] but thereafter Olympiacos became increasingly more powerful and successful and began to pass Ethnikos by.

In 1956, Olympiacos won the championship with Ethnikos finishing second meaning the first and only time in which the top two positions in the league were occupied by Piraeus's teams.

One of Ethnikos's most important wins (if not the most important) is the semifinal win in the 1932-33 Greek Cup when he beat Olympiacos 2-1 in a knockout match.

Ethnikos was relegated in 1990 to the second division, a sad moment for the club who was never releagated since its foundation in 1923. Nevertheless, Olympiacos fans celebrated it.

Along the way, Olympiacos developed a habit for luring Ethnikos' best players, like Greek national team players Philippos Kourantis in the late 1920s, Giannis Chelmis in the late 1930s and Giannis Ioannou in the early 1950s.[5] This habit continued in the later decades with Christos Arvanitis, Tasos Mitropoulos, Stavros Papadopoulos, Thomas Rohrbach.

In 1956–57 Olympiacos was seemingly behind a scandal that robbed Ethnikos of the national championship. Ethnikos was favorite for the title with 4 matches left in the season, and had the derby with Olympiacos next on the schedule; but before the derby arrived Ethnikos was dubiously disqualified from the competition. With Ethnikos out of the way Olympiacos ultimately took the Championship.[4]

In 1973 Ethnikos lost the great Michalis Kritikopoulos to Olympiacos, just a year before Ethnikos mounted its greatest challenge for the national championship in the modern era; many Ethnikos fans feel that if they still had Kritikopoulos, the team would have managed to hold on to 1st place rather than run out of gas in the second half of the 1974–75 season.[5]

Olympiacos ultimately became the dominant football club in Greece, having won the League and Cup more than any other club,[1][2] and Ethnikos has not been able to seriously compete with them for decades. Ethnikos has not defeated Olympiacos in a league match since the 1985–86 season and has not finished above Olympiacos in the league standings since the 1987–88 season.

In the 1990s, when Olympiacos was experiencing probably the greatest era of its history while Ethnikos was suffering through what was surely its worst, Ethnikos lost some of its fanbase to Olympiacos.

A recent point of contention for Ethnikos fans has to do with Karaiskakis Stadium. Karaiskakis is the traditional home of both Olympiacos and Ethnikos,[6] but only Olympiacos has played there since the stadium was rebuilt for use in the 2004 Summer Olympics.[7]

Olympiacos's biggest win is 5-0 twice (1966, 1968) while Ethnikos's is 4-2 twice (1929, 1939)

Since 1960 and the introduction of A' Ethniki, Olympiakos won 53 times, Ethnikos 4 times and 15 matches ended as a draw.

Last win for Ethnikos is in 1986 in Olympic Stadium (2-0) while Olympiacos's is the last match they played each other in 1999 (0-3 for Olympiacos).

Summary of matches for Greek league and cup

Competition	Olympiacos Wins	Draws	Ethnikos Wins
Panhellenic Championship (1928-1959)	12	6	6
A' Ethniki (1960-)	53	15	4
Greek Cup (1932-)	7	2	2
Total	72	23	12
Goals	211		92

Head to Head in the Greek cup

Year	Round	Winner	Score	Loser
1933	Semifinal	Ethnikos	2–1	Olympiacos
1940	Quarterfinal	Ethnikos	1–0	Olympiacos
1947	Quarterfinal	Olympiacos	2–0	Ethnikos
1969	Semifinal	Olympiacos	4–3 (aet)	Ethnikos
1976	Second round	Olympiacos	1–0	Ethnikos
1979	Second round	Olympiacos	1–0	Ethnikos
1984	Round of 16	Ethnikos Olympiacos	0–0 1–1 (away goals)	Olympiacos Ethnikos
1986	Quarterfinal	Olympiacos Ethnikos	3–1 0–1	Ethnikos Olympiacos
1987	First round	Olympiacos	2–1	Ethnikos