Ahead of Sunday's clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid, espnstar.com re-lives some of the great 'El Clasico' matches.

El Clasico translates simply as The Classic, and over the years Real Madrid and Barcelona have served up a constant dish of passion, excellence and no small amount of controversy to ensure it remains one of the biggest occasions in world sport.

Chris Mulcairn takes a stroll down memory lane and picks his favourite encounters from recent years.

The Pigs Head
23 April 2002
Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg
Barcelona 0-2 Real Madrid

As if the usual fire and brimstone reception for the capital team was not enough, this El Clasico had two extra ingredients that ratcheted up the atmosphere to unprecedented levels.

Firstly the match was the first leg of a Champions League semi-final. Secondly, it featured the return of Luis Figo who two years earlier had left Barcelona for bitter rivals Real.

Many Catalans felt betrayed by their former hero jumping ship to Madrid and turned out in force to let him know how they felt. From the first minute to the last Figo was booed and heckled remorselessly and had to contend with objects being thrown at him whenever he strayed close to the touchline.

The match gained notoriety when Figo, who had gone to take a corner, had a pig's head thrown at him.

Despite the toxic atmosphere, Real had the last laugh as goals from Zinedine Zidane and Steve McManaman gave them a famous 2-0 victory at the Camp Nou.

Real went on to win the Champions League and Barcelona were given a hefty fine for their fans' behaviour.

The Galacticos
10 April 2005
Primera Liga
Real Madrid 4-2 Barcelona

This match could be seen as president Florentino Perez's crowning moment - validating his often derided 'Galactico' policy as his team of superstars put Barcelona to the sword.

Signing one 'Galactico' each year had been Perez's ticket to becoming president in 2000 but the policy had met with limited success as the team's obsession with attacking talent left them un-balanced and vulnerable in defence.

However having signed Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham and Michael Owen, Perez finally hit pay-dirt as the team clicked on the night with a scintillating display of football as they routed Barca 4-2.

The score-sheet that night reads like a who's who of world football talent: Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul, Owen, Eto'o and Ronaldinho.

The Prodigy
10 March 2007
Primera Liga
Barcelona 3-3 Real Madrid

This El Clasico saw the emergence of one of the greatest players of his generation - a nineteen-year-old footballing prodigy called Lionel Messi.

Having made his debut just two years earlier, the slender Argentinian came to prominence in this match by scoring a hat-trick to single-handedly earn Barca a share of the spoils against their hated opponents.

Reduced to ten men just before half time the mercurial Messi equalized three times to cancel out a brace from Ruud van Nistelrooy and a Sergio Ramos header, the final goal coming in the 87th minute.

Messi became the first man to hit a hat-trick for 12 years and one of only seven players to have done so in Barca's history, sending the 97,823 fans who had packed the Camp Nou home delirious.

The Rout
2 May 2009
Primera Liga
Real Madrid 2-6 Barcelona

As the season was coming to a climax just four points separated the two rivals at the top of La Liga - and this encounter was seen as Real's last chance to close the gap on their hated rivals.

Real were buoyed by a run of form that had seen them post 17 victories and a draw in 18 matches and a fervent Bernabeu was full of expectation.

Over the next 90 minutes the crowd was left stunned and impotent as Barcelona proceeded to destroy the home team with a style and swagger that had not been seen for years.

Despite going a goal down inside 15 minutes Barca stuck to their game and handed out a footballing lesson to a shell-shocked Real - Xavi and Andres Iniesta dominating the midfield with their clever interplay and Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi ghosting past the Real defence seemingly at will.

Goals from Henry (2), Messi (2), Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué ensured that Pep Guardiola's side  would go on to lift the league title two weeks later.

The 6-2 victory for Barcelona constituted the highest number of goals scored by one team in El Clasico since Real beat Barca 8-2 all the way back in 1935.