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The rest of the first leg cup ties took place this week, with another six red cards in the 13 games. Two coaches, Anquela (Alcorcón) and José Manuel González (Cádiz), were amongst those sent to the stands for protesting, and Almería had Dani Bautista and José Ortíz sent off against Osasuna. Only two first division players saw red though, Levante's Héctor Rodas and Real Madrid's Raúl Albiol, both for second bookable offences.

A busy week for the disciplinary committee in the league though, with a season best haul of eight red cards in the nine games (Barça and Rayo played last month, remember). Five of those came on Saturday, with Real Madrid's Pepe getting his marching orders at Sevilla after picking up a second booking for clobbering Negredo close to half time. Numbers were evened up in the second half though when Manu was shown a straight red for a foul on Arbeloa. Two red cards as well at San Mamés, where Javi Martínez felt himself unlucky to be sent for an early bath midway through the first half after Pérez Montero awarded a penalty against him for what he considered to be a foul on Zaragoza's Lafita, even though the defender clearly played the ball. After the restart the referee also sent off Lanzaro for a rather harsh second yellow card, probably making up for the first red card? Elsewhere Espanyol's trainer Jesús Pérez was shown a red card for protesting, and he will have to serve out a two match ban.

Three players were red-carded on Sunday, all for second bookable offences. The young Betis forward Pozuelo was the first to go, but not before he had scored one of the goals which gave his team a 0-2 win at Atlético Madrid. Later in the day Levante's Nano got his second yellow card for insulting the referee whilst walking off the pitch at the end of the game, and Real Sociedad's Iñigo Martínez picked up his second red card of the season ten minutes in to the second half of the game at Racing Santander. The under 21 defender made matters worse with some unfortunate comments to the referee, and he was given an additional yellow card which happened to be his fifth of the season, meaning he will be out for the next two league matches. A fifth yellow card as well for another seven players, Paulo Assunçao (Atlético), Lopo (Getafe), Jara (Granada), Javi Venta (Levante), Cáceres (Mallorca), Albelda (Valencia) and Ponzio (Zaragoza), and all will be able to take an extended holiday during the festive season. (20.12.11)

(* suspension pending disciplinary meeting decision)

Villains Yellow cards Red cards (straight) Games banned Total points
Iñigo Martínez (Real Soc) 7 2 (1) 3* 13
Rami (Valencia) 6 1 (1) 3 11
Amorebieta (Athletic) 7 2 2 11
Lanzaro (Zaragoza) 7 2 2* 11
Jordi Alba (Valencia) 5 1 (1) 3 10
Javi Martínez (Athletic) 6 1 (1) 2* 10
Forlín (Espanyol) 7 1 2 10
Javi López (Espanyol) 7 1 2 10
Diop (Racing) 7 1 2 10
Pina (Mallorca) 9 0 1 10
Arribas (Rayo) 9 0 1 10
Spahic (Sevilla) 9 0 1 10
Lopo (Getafe) 5 1 (1) 2* 9
Satrustegui (Osasuna) 5 2 2 9
Domínguez (Atlético) 5 1 (1) 1 8
Kanouté (Sevilla) 5 1 (1) 1 8
Nano (Levante) 6 1 1* 8
Pepe (Real Madrid) 6 1 1* 8
Navarro (Sevilla) 6 1 1 8
Iturraspe (Athletic) 7 0 1 8
Miguel Torres (Getafe) 7 0 1 8
Chico (Mallorca) 7 0 1 8
Casado (Rayo) 7 0 1 8
Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid) 7 0 1 8
Medel (Sevilla) 7 0 1 8
Juárez (Zaragoza) 7 0 1 8