Controversy involving Real Madrid this week, both in their midweek cup semi-final at Sevilla and their Sunday league match with Valencia. Zinedine Zidane was sent off just before half time in the Wednesday night game, ostensibly for whacking Pablo Alfaro in the face with a backswinging hand. It did look though as if Zidane was trying to steady himself, or at best shake off the troublesome veteran defender, and Alfaro's over-reaction was heavily criticised in the press afterwards. The good doctor (for that he is) is an old hand at the game, and defended his action afterwards. Numbers were evened up though only ten minutes after the restart when Javi Navarro was given a second booking, and Madrid went on to win the tie even though they lost the match. Madrid were in the headlines again at the weekend, but for more on that read our white stick section.

Five red cards at the weekend, including one for Osasuna's Pablo García for a vicious tackle on Valerón which cost him a two match ban and takes him second in our chart. A straight red for Real Murcia's Esnaider too, but that was for insulting the referee early in the match for awarding a rigorous penalty against his side. Murcia manager John Toshack was livid, saying he had put his hand in the fire for the off-form striker and ended up getting burnt. Esnaider's ironic reply did nothing to calm the situation, and he could be looking for new employment sooner rather than later.

Edgar Davids is another well known villain in other worlds, and he saw his first red card in Spain this weekend. He can think himself unlucky though that he came up against a finickity referee, and his second yellow for hand ball was a bit much. Another to see red for a second booking was Athletic Bilbao's Carlos Gurpegui. The young midfielder is currently awaiting the results of an appeal against a two year ban for failing a drugs test, but we haven't counted the few days' suspension he has already served on this. He does however make it into our charts on purely sporting criteria. Sevilla's Mexican midfielder Torrado was the fifth player to be sent off, also for a double yellow card.

Real Madrid will be missing their midfield pairing of Beckham and Guti for the trip to the Montjuic stadium this weekend, both players picking up their fifth yellow cards of the season. Espanyol will be missing two players as well though for the same reason, Domoraud and Fredson the offenders, as will Málaga, for whom Fernando Sanz and Manu will be unavailable (Sanz has reached the ten card threshold). Five more players have also been suspended, including Fernando Torres (Atlético Madrid), Parri (Albacete), Juanma (Murcia), Redondo (Sevilla) and Garrido (Valencia). Atlético are hoping to appeal against the fifth card for Torres so that he could be available for the match against Deportivo. (17.02.04)