Ammon News - El Clásico is always a huge deal, one of the most-viewed matches around the world in any season. But with Barcelona and Real Madrid meeting so late in the season with the LaLiga title still on the line, this is one of the biggest in years.

When these two giants meet at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium on Sunday (stream LIVE at 10:15 a.m. ET on ESPN+), they do so as the only two teams left who can become champions of Spain for 2024-25. If winning the title itself is not sufficient motivation for stars such as Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé, then the alternative losing out to their own club's bitter rivals is unthinkable.

Barcelona have had the upper hand every time they played Madrid this season. But failure to convert their four-point lead into lifting the trophy would be a cruel end to coach Hansi Flick's first season in charge, especially after their stunning defeat in an all-time classic UEFA Champions League semifinal against Inter Milan earlier this week.

For Madrid, a season without any silverware is nothing short of a disaster. But that is the possibility legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti is facing in what appears to be his final year at the club.

ESPN's Barcelona and Madrid correspondents, Sam Marsden and Alex Kirkland, explain why there is so much riding on this Sunday's Clásico.

Why this is the biggest Clásico in years
We've had four Clásicos this season, each more significant than the last. Now, it seems like the whole campaign has been building to this one game.

For a start, Clásicos rarely happen this late, and much less with so much at stake. LaLiga intentionally schedules these games for March or April, when there's likely to be more jeopardy and less chance of the league's most high-profile fixture having no tangible stakes. In fact, in the past 30 years, only one Clásico has come later: Barcelona's 1-0 win over Madrid who won the league anyway, with Barça finishing three places and nine points behind on May 27, 1995. But here we are, on Matchday 35, with the league title still up for grabs: Barça four points ahead, favorites to win the league and complete a domestic double, with Madrid grimly hanging on, hoping to win this clash and for Barça to crumble in the three games that follow.

There are a couple of significant precedents, and they gave us some of the biggest moments in Clásico history.

Let's go back to April 2012 and Matchday 35 at Camp Nou. This was, in many ways, peak Clásico. Pep Guardiola vs. José Mourinho, Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo, and one iconic image: Ronaldo's "calma, calma" gesture to the Camp Nou crowd after scoring the winner. Madrid won 2-1, and a week later, they won the league with a record 100 points and 121 goals scored.

Three years earlier, another epic Clásico: on May 2, 2009, Matchday 34, Barça demolished Madrid 6-2 at the Santiago Bernabéu. Messi and Thierry Henry both scored twice in arguably the signature performance of the Guardiola era. It wasn't quite decisive Barça were declared champions two weeks later but the jaw-dropping result left no doubt about which way the race was headed. ESPN