Two players sent off in the
cup tie between Atlético Madrid and Espanyol on the last official day of
the footballing year. Reyes must have felt himself unlucky though to be going
off alone after being shown a red card for retailiating against Dátolo
shortly before half time, as the Argentinian midfielder had brought him down
with a bad tackle and then kicked the ball against him as he lay on the ground.
Dátolo was only booked for the offence, but numbers were evened up in
the second half when Víctor Ruíz picked up a second
booking.
Five red cards at the
weekend, including three in the match between Athletic Bilbao and Deportivo.
San José was the first to go with just over half an hour on the clock
for holding back Adrián as he advanced on goal, but ten minutes later
Juan Rodríguez joined him in the tunnel for a second bookable offence.
Athletic ended the game with nine men however after Ustaritz was also given a
second yellow card near the end. Elsewhere Valencia's Aduríz was sent
off for elbowing Espanyol's Chica with an hour gone in their match, and Real
Madrid's Arbeloa got his marching orders for a second booking near the end of
the derby game at Getafe. Another eight players will miss next weekend's games
after picking up their fifth bookings of the season, including Forlín
(Espanyol), Eliseu (Málaga), Soriano (Osasuna), Griezmann (Real
Sociedad), Zokora (Sevilla), Ricardo Costa (Valencia), Ponzio (Zaragoza) and
Nano (Levante), who was let off a fifth yellow card by the appeals committee
only a couple of weeks ago. (05.01.11) |