The Spanish cup resumed this week, with the eight third-round games producing three red cards between them. Recreativo Huelva's Viqueira was the first to go when he insulted the referee for not punishing the Sevilla defenders who were standing too close to his free kick, but numbers were evened up after the break when arch villain Javi Navarro was given a second booking. Navarro seems to have taken over the mantle from his team captain Pablo Alfaro, and is now only one "point" behind our leader Pablo García. The other red card was for Numancia's Palacios, who brought down Elche's Peragón in the penalty area close to half time.

Six more red cards at the weekend in the league, including Deportivo's César, who picked up two bookings in their disappointing 1-1 draw with Numancia. César moves up to third in our table as a result. Controversy at the Bernabeu stadium, where Real Madrid's Figo was let off a red card after a hard tackle in the opening minutes on Zaragoza's César Jiménez, who had to be carried off and will miss the rest of the season with torn knee ligaments. Later in the game Jiménez's defensive partner Alvaro was sent off by the referee for two bookable offences, although he too was lucky that the second was not a straight red. More on that game in our white stick section.

Pulido (Getafe), Izquierdo (Osasuna), Pedro López (Racing) and Xabi Prieto (Real Sociedad) were the other four offenders, all of whom were sent off after picking up two yellow cards in their respective games. They will be joined on the sidelines next weekend by six other players who reached the five caution threshold, including Cañas (Betis), Ito (Espanyol), Cotelo (Getafe), Cortés (Mallorca), Aramburu (Real Sociedad) and Corradi (Valencia).

Finally the disciplinary bodies acted quickly for once after the bans of Espanyol's Tamudo and Serrano were put on hold last week. In the end Tamudo's suspension was reduced from two games to one, but Serrano's one match ban was upheld. Both sat out Sunday's game at Bilbao as a result. (18.01.05)