La Liga - El Clasico: Two memorable meetings

Eurosport - Sat, 02 May 11:21:00 2009

Saturday sees Real Madrid and Barcelona meet in El Clasico, considered by many to be the biggest rivalry in Europe, if not the world.

FOOTBALL Messi Casillas Real Barcelona - 0

Here we bring back memories of two classic recent meetings of the two Spanish giants.

Barcelona 3-3 Real Madrid, March 2007

While the Spanish media dubbed the 2002 Champions League semi-final clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona as "The Match of the Century", one of the more notable clashes between the two clubs came in 2007 at the Camp Nou.

In this league clash, Barcelona needed just one point to overhaul Sevilla at the top of the table and had to come from behind three times to earn it.

The game finished 3-3 and produced four first-half goals, some outstanding goalkeeping, nine bookings, one sending-off and a sublime hat-trick from a certain 19-year-old wonderkid called Lionel Messi.

Real Madrid would go on to win La Liga, finishing on the same number of points as Barcelona (76 points) but with a more superior head-to-head record.

Real Madrid 0-0 Barcelona, November 2002

While it is rare for Barcelona's top players to defect to their arch-rivals, it has been known to happen. Bernd Schuster made such a move in the 1980s, as did Michael Laudrup in the 1990s.

However, Luis Figo's transfer from Barcelona to Real will live long in the memory, principally because one of his returns to the Catalan capital in Los Merengues colours resulted in an extraordinary array of missiles being thrown onto the pitch, which included a now infamous pig's head.

The cochinillo, or suckling pig's, cranium hit the turf in 2002, following on from the coins, bricks, mobile phones and bicycle chains which had greeted Figo on his initial return to Camp Nou as a Madrid player in 2000.

As a result of the incident, the Spanish football authorities ordered a two-game closure of the Camp Nou. The game, incidentally, ended goalless.

Head-to-head record (win-draw-loss):

Real Madrid 68 30 59

Barcelona 59 30 68

(across all competitions and correct as at April 30 2009)

Previous meeting this season:

La Liga, December 13

Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid

Goals: Eto'o (83'), Messi (90')

Attendance: 78,000

Barcelona: Valdes, Marquez, Puyol, Abidal, Dani Alves, Xavi (Keita 90+1'), Toure, Henry, Messi, Eto'o (Hleb 88'), Gudjohnsen (Busquets 64')

Real Madrid: Casillas, Salgado, Metzelder, Ramos, Cannavaro, Guti (Javi Garcia 74'), Drenthe, Gago, Raul, Sneijder (Fernandez 36'), Higuain (Van der Vaart 77')

Liam Graf / Eurosport

Comment 10 - 29 of 29

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  1. isn't that the eurosport Count down for no 1? :D

    From kuledX, on Sat 2 May 6:24PM

  2. viva barca.... bit the hell of mardid vanamos!!

    From Amir Bahador M, on Sat 2 May 5:26PM

  3. getache... xavi, puyol, iniesta, nadal, sergi, amor,­ guardiola, messi, valdez, to name a few. last season­ when team gave up, finally for first time in 2? 3?­ years that casillas DIDNT let in MORE goals than­ valdez. This year the same eh. Go and shag a sheep kid.­

    Visca El BARCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From moon2309, on Sat 2 May 4:41PM

  4. FOOTBALL MADE IN SPAIN..The guy calling real madrid an­ animal is a fool which he never have a mature way of­ disturbing a team... everyone know that in the world­ madrid is the best team and all time champion,name it,­ best goalkeeper,Topscorer which no one have broke the­ record and best 2 ..so tell me what player has barca­ train that have make the record of undefect... so you­ people that dont know football should just shout­ up...my record with barca is higher than of the barca­ or other team.. anyteam can beat other in an unexpected­ ways.. so dont talk about relamadrid-liverpool.. today­ we see who is capable of winning the laliga primera­ league... Up madrid

    From robert jones, on Sat 2 May 3:25PM

  5. Eto'o ALWAYS scores against Madrid.. Watch and see.

    From TITUS N, on Sat 2 May 2:55PM

  6. how did i knw getachew44 will be here talking about­ barca? This guy is sad.. has no life LOOL.. everyehere­ u see a debate about barcam he is there, and he claims­ to be a Madrid fan. BULL@#$%

    From TITUS N, on Sat 2 May 2:54PM

  7. Madrid 0-3 Barca
    Eto'o 2 Henry 1
    (Dont miss this­ match)

    From TITUS N, on Sat 2 May 2:50PM

  8. i reckon the decider of this clasico would be between 2­ young argentine, Messi vs Higuan.. if not Eto'o or­ Raul.. whatever it is, Barca must maintain if not­ extend the leads..!

    VISCA EL BARCA!

    From carlamms, on Sat 2 May 2:13PM

  9. i'm very lucky to be in bernabue tonight
    it will­ be interesting match
    because both play attaking­ football & both play to win none will play for­ draw
    real madrid will play with
    GK cassillas
    dif: ramos­ canavaro hainzi marcelo
    stoper: l.diara &­ gago
    winger: robben & higuin
    striker: hantelar­ & raul
    the main abcents will be guti, snijder &­ pepe
    barca will play with
    GK valdez
    dif: alves puyol­ pequi abidal
    stoper: sergio busqes & kaita
    play­ maker: xavi
    winger: iniesta &­ messi
    strikers:eto
    main abcents will be marqez
    henry­ & tore will be on the bench to take rest for 2nd­ leg cl
    i hope it end just like last barca visite to­ madrid against athletico.
    real madrid 4 - 1 barcelona

    From getachew44, on Sat 2 May 1:01PM

  10. U PEOPLE SHOULD NOT WORRY, BECAUSE AS FAR AS WE ARE­ TALKING ABOUT BARCELONA THERE ARE GOING TO WIN TODAYS­ MATCH. THAT IS FINAL.

    From ojaib26, on Sat 2 May 12:46PM

  11. Will Barca be thinking about resting players for the­ 2nd leg at the shed in the CL ? For sure Juande and the­ lads will be out for revenge against Barca, they can­ get it. Will be a very, very interesting match.

    From ispurs, on Sat 2 May 12:14PM

  12. Wait for Leo Messi!
    He will become the top scorer in­ UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
    VISCA EL BARCA!

    From ismael_uruguaj, on Sat 2 May 12:02PM

  13. ziads #16
    go to hell!
    real madrid have won 9 champions­ league r u going to say that uefa give it to them?­ don't be jerk & moron
    last year uefa declared­ real madrid as the club of the century
    u said­ barca's home grown talet but to make sure that u r­ so stupied,
    all the stars u wrote were not home­ grown(maradona romario rivaldo ronaldo croyf figo &­ ronaldinho) tell me which one is home grown
    in madrid­ we have the best keeper in world & all time­ champion league top scorer is raul both r home grown, ­ i have never seen in barca top scorer which is home­ grown since the time of Kubala the hangarian &­ johan croyf the dutch till this day samuel eto'o­ the cameronian
    so plz everybody if u don't know­ football & the history of the teams don't write­ senceless things over here, post your comments­ elsewhere

    From getachew44, on Sat 2 May 11:50AM

  14. ziads #16
    go to hell!
    real madrid have won 9 champions­ league r u going to say that uefa give it to them?­ don't be jerk & moron
    last year uefa declared­ real madrid as the club of the century
    u said­ barca's home grown talet but to make sure that u r­ so stupied,
    all the stars u wrote were not home­ grown(maradona romario rivaldo ronaldo croyf figo &­ ronaldinho) tell me which one is home grown
    in madrid­ we have the best keeper in world & all time­ champion league top scorer is raul both r home grown, ­ i have never seen in barca top scorer which is home­ grown since the time of Kubala the hangarian &­ johan croyf the dutch till this day samuel eto'o­ the cameronian
    so plz everybody if u don't know­ football & the history of the teams don't write­ senceless things over here, post your comments­ elsewhere

    From getachew44, on Sat 2 May 11:50AM

  15. i personaly would give the title to barca who is always­ the best, the animals of real will need a zoo to play­ on it specially players like pepe,gago and ramos,they­ just want to win by force and by money,they never play­ good football except the years of Zidane. they always­ steel players from barca the great acadimy even at­ their goldens days, destifano was barca player,­ ronaldo, figo, saviolla, tried a lot with revaldo,­ maraddona, ronaldinho. barca creat players and the­ animals steel them because in spain the football­ federation allow this and they dont protect the club.­ that is real with the bunch of players, they play­ everything except football and they want to win the­ title How Lol, a team who lost from a third devision­ club in spanish cup, and lost to liverpool 5-0 in the­ champion league wants to win the title how come, there­ is only one way, bribing and buying the games, we saw­ their results outside the lega. chelsea same way,­ ibramovich way.

    From ziads, on Sat 2 May 11:05AM

  16. well real madrid have got the goalkeeper in the world­ so i predict a 2-1 madrid win

    From smiley123, on Sat 2 May 10:58AM

  17. anonima might be a man...u sure u still wanna suck dat­ ???

    From Nonsrule, on Sat 2 May 10:19AM

  18. barca will win and go on to win the la liga title this­ year. Let chelsea fans watch good foot ball tonight­ from the best ligue of the world

    From jamescollabe, on Sat 2 May 10:11AM

  19. nice tits :)

    From billiebdj, on Sat 2 May 10:05AM

  20. nice tit anonima.i want to suck it

    From Rudi, on Sat 2 May 10:04AM
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