Hollyoaks and Waterloo Road may have battled it out at various television awards over the past couple of decades, but the soaps were locked in another fiery feud on Thursday (2 July) as they took to the football pitch!
To coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is currently taking place across North America, stars from each series competed in a five-a-side football match at MediaCity in Salford, Greater Manchester.
The Channel 4 soap was represented by Nick Pickard, Ashley Taylor Dawson, Sam Meyer, Ijaz Rana and Charlie Behan, with the quintet playing Tony Hutchinson, Darren Osborne, Maddox Keane, Imran Maalik and Charlie Dean respectively.
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The team for the BBC school drama had a slightly bigger squad, however, as they had seven players - Liam Scholes, Tashinga Bepete, Alfie Corbett, Yousef Naseer, Lewis Pemberton, Scarlett Thomas and Mollie Winnard - to choose from.
The larger roster and fresh legs didn't count for much, though, as the Hollyoaks team came out on top in the end. We don't know the final score, but the match was said to be full of "goals, laughs and friendly rivalry".
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Pickard, the soap's longest-serving cast member, said: "We'll be reminding the Waterloo Road lot about this one for a while. It was all great fun, but the pressure was on once that whistle blew. Thankfully we've got the bragging rights until the rematch."
Scholes, who plays Noel McManus in the BBC series, said: "We were absolutely buzzing to take part in this match! There's a friendly rivalry between all soaps, and we brought the energy, teamwork and Mancunian spirit - but there is always a next time!"
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Alice Webb, CEO at MediaCity, paid tribute to both soaps in a statement, saying: "As the nerve centre of the BBC's World Cup coverage, it was fantastic to bring together two of the UK’s best-loved TV shows to do battle on our iconic World Cup 5-a-side pitch.
"We welcomed fans and sports pundits alike for what proved to be one of the most hotly contested matches of the tournament, and while MediaCity Post looks after Waterloo Road’s post-production, there were certainly no favours on the pitch."
Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release. Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video. Waterloo Road airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Read more Waterloo Road spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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