The disciplinary committee
let Málaga's Josemi and Gerardo off yellow cards midweek, which meant
for the second week in a row Josemi had his one match ban cancelled. Zaragoza's
Galletti was also let off a suspension after a lengthy appeal to the CEDD, but
was unlucky enough to catch flu and miss the match anyway. Some things are
better left alone.
Only three red cards in a
quiet weekend, with Betis midfielder Benjamín the worst offender after
pushing the referee in an argument about a second penalty. The Sevilla based
club will appeal though, as they say the incident happened when Benjamín
was jostled by other players, and he fell into the referee accidentally.
Zaragoza's Toledo was also sent off with a straight red card after giving away
a penalty against Sevilla, the moment crucial in the visitors' fight back from
two goals down. But without doubt the most infamous red card of the weekend was
for Real Madrid's Figo against his old club Barcelona. The Portuguese star
picked up two bookings, the first for protesting and the second for a hard
tackle on Puyol. Imagine what would have happened if that had been in the Nou
Camp and not in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium!
Figo misses next weekend's
crunch match at Deportivo, as does Iván Helguera, who picked up a tenth
yellow card of the season, and Depor's Fran, who was shown his fifth. Several
other players will be suspended next weekend as well, including
Atlético's De los Santos, who picked up his fifteenth booking to date.
Kvarme and Xabi Alonso (Real Sociedad), Poli (Mallorca) and Morán
(Racing) all hit the ten card threshold, and Giovanella (Celta) and De la
Peña (Espanyol) both received their fifth. De la Peña misses the
city derby against his old side Barcelona. (26.04.04) |