One red card in the cup and four more in the league this week. Betis central defender Juanito was shown a second yellow card in the last minute of extra time of the semi-final tie against Athletic Bilbao, which meant he should have missed next month's final. However one of the bookings was cancelled on appeal, so he will be available to Serra Ferrer in the end.

The first red card of the weekend went to Real Madrid's Iván Helguera for a tackle from behind on Sevilla's Darío Silva, a sign of frustration after their opponents equalised in the dying minutes of the game to hand the league title to Barcelona. On Sunday Osasuna's Izquierdo was shown his third red card of the season just before half time for insulting the referee's mother in the match at Numancia, and Deportivo's Coloccini was given his marching orders after picking up a second booking for throwing the ball at Zaragoza's David Villa. Later in the evening Valencia keeper was also sent off after giving away a first half penalty on Espanyol's Maxi, although his club will appeal as he didn't appear to touch the midfielder, and in any case there were two or three other defenders behind the ball at the time.

Six players will miss the next to last match of the season after picking up their fifth bookings, including Urzaiz (Athletic Bilbao), Doblas (Betis), Celestini (Levante), Muñoz and Ortiz (Osasuna) and Benayoun (Racing), plus Sosa (Atlético), who picked up his tenth. Finally last week's appeals committee let Levante's Reggi off his red card as it appeared he didn't insult the referee after all. God knows how they knew that! Lipreaders? (17.05.05)