Five red cards in the
midweek round of matches, with Villarreal's promising young defender Musacchio
getting himself sent off early in the game against Almería for a foul on
Piatti. Numbers were evened up when Chico was also red-carded after the break,
but by then Villarreal were too far behind. Xerez's last hopes of survival have
all but disappeared after a 3-1 defeat at Valencia ended with Redondo getting
his marching orders for a second bookable offence, and Racing are also
struggling after Morris gave away a penalty and then picked up two bookings in
a 1-5 thrashing by Sevilla.
Espanyol's Nico Pareja was
also sent for an early bath after getting himself booked for giving away a
penalty at Zaragoza and then immediately earning himself a second caution for
arguing, and his team-mate Luis García was also shown two yellow cards,
although as the last one was after the final whistle it doesn't count as a
sending off. It was however García's tenth yellow card of the season,
and he will therefore miss the weekend game against Osasuna. That doesn't
matter so much as Espanyol are 99% safe, but there will be more important
absences next weekend for teams with everything to play for, with for example
Champions League candidates Mallorca missing Nunes and Borja Valero who both
picked up their tenth bookings of the season. Struggling Málaga will be
without Iván González (10 bookings) Munúa and Valdo (both
five) for their match at Getafe, and Racing will not be able to count on top
scorer Tchité for their relegation battle at Valladolid after he too
picked up a fifth yellow card. (07.05.10)
PS. Chico (Almería)
and Munúa (Málaga) were let off their respective red and yellow
cards by the appeals committee, and therefore will be available to their
coaches at the weekend. |