Seven red cards this weekend as tensions rise nearing the end of the season, Granada’s Brahimi the first to go after picking up a second booking a few minutes after the break in the Saturday afternoon game against Rayo Vallecano. Two players sent off for the same reason in the match between Getafe and Málaga later in the evening, Ciprian Marica before the break and Angeleri with a quarter of an hour to go. Espanyol were left with nine men against Almería on Sunday lunchtime, Stuani being shown a second yellow card after the interval and Javi López a straight red near the end for a foul on Zongo, and later in the day Atlético’s Juanfran (straight red for an injury time tackle from behind on Valencia’s Piatti) and Sevilla’s Diogo Figueiras (two cautions) were also given their marching orders.

They will be joined on the sidelines next weekend by nine players who completed the five yellow card cycle, Dubarbier (Almería) and Iborra (Sevilla), who were both shown their tenth yellow cards of the season, and Trujillo (Almería), Muniain (Athletic), Lisandro López and Pedro León (Getafe), Bergdich and Alvaro Rubio (Valladolid) and Manu Trigueros (Villarreal), who were all given their fifth.

An investigation was also opened relating to the racist incident at Villarreal, where a banana was thrown at Barcelona’s Dani Alves by an idiot in the crowd. As everyone will no doubt have seen after the video went viral in the social media, the Brazilian full back calmly picked up the offending article, took a bite out of it and got on with the game! Villarreal have however been able to identify the culprit after nearby fans pointed him out to the stewards, and he will be fined and banned from attending matches for life. The club could still be penalized though under UEFA’s zero tolerance policy against racism, although the fact that they have caught and punished the perpetrator must help. ( 29.04.14 )

(* suspension pending disciplinary meeting decision)

Villains Yellow cards Red cards (straight) Games banned Total points
Víctor Sánchez (Espanyol) 20 3 5 28
Gálvez (Rayo Vallecano) 17 1 4 22
Alexis (Getafe) 17 1 3 21
Diogo Figueiras (Sevilla) 11 2 (1) 6* 20
Saúl (Rayo Vallecano) 15 1 3 19
Botía (Elche) 16 0 3 19
Duda (Málaga) 8 2 (2) 6 18
Iturra (Granada) 13 2 3 18
Jesús Gámez (Málaga) 12 1 4 18
Damián Suárez (Elche) 12 2 3 17
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) 12 1 (1) 3 17
Barral (Levante) 13 1 3 17
Sergio Sánchez (Málaga) 13 1 3 17
Iborra (Sevilla) 13 1 3* 17
Busquets (Barcelona) 15 0 2 17
Iñigo Martínez (Real Soc) 11 1 4 16
Dubarbier (Almería) 12 1 3* 16
Silva (Osasuna) 12 1 3 16
Filipe Luis (Atlético) 8 2 (1) 4 15
Cala (Sevilla) 9 2 (1) 3 15
Amaya (Betis) 12 1 2 15
Nono (Betis) 12 1 2 15
Escudero (Getafe) 12 1 2 15