It is difficult to understand how Spain’s centre back pairing between Sergio Ramos and Gerard Piqué has been so successful, given that the two quite clearly hate each other! Things flared up again in last Sunday’s “clásico” when Ramos was sent off for a two-footed tackle on Messi late on in the game, his fifth red card against the old rival, and the 22 nd of his Real Madrid career. Piqué was booed mercilessly by the Bernabeu crowd after his continued campaign of provocative tweets against Spanish referees and all things Madrid, and as Ramos left the field he gestured towards Piqué, applauding and muttering something about the Barça defender’s big mouth having influenced the referee. Spain play Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier in June, so let’s hope the boys can kiss and make up before that!

Las Palmas striker Livaja was also shown a red card this weekend for a hard tackle on Alavés midfielder Llorente just three minutes after coming on as a late substitute, and he faces a bigger ban for shoving the referee in the shoulder after he was sent off. It seems those anger management classes are just not working! On Monday night Eibar’s Escalante was sent for an early bath as well after a hard tackle on Athletic’s Muniain on Monday night, and Leganés assistant coach Miguel Pérez was sent to the stands for protesting the fact that the referee allowed a last minute Bakambu goal to stand when he knocked the ball in to the net with his hand. Seems he had a good case though! (See “Villains” section for more on that one).

All will miss the midweek round of matches together with eight players who completed the five yellow card cycle, including Valencia’s Mangala and Dani Parejo, and Granada's Andreas Pereira, who picked up their tenth bookings of the season, and Marcelo Díaz (Celta), Iván Ramis and Pedro León (both Eibar), Michel Macedo (Las Palmas) and Moi Gómez (Sporting), who all were given their fifth. ( 25.04.17 )

PS. As expected, Livaja was given an additional four match ban for pushing the referee, and he therefore will not play again before the end of the season. Escalante and Miguel Pérez were also given two match suspensions by the disciplinary committee.

(* suspension pending disciplinary meeting decision)

Villains Yellow cards Red cards (straight) Games banned Total points
Livaja (Las Palmas) 12 1 (1) 7* 21
Uche Agbo (Granada) 13 2 (1) 5 21
Theo Hernández (Alavés) 14 2 (1) 4 21
Enzo Pérez (Valencia) 15 1 (1) 3 20
Amorebieta (Sporting) 16 0 3 19
Neymar (Barcelona) 11 1 5 17
Escalante (Eibar) 11 1 (1) 4* 17
Mangala (Valencia) 12 1 (1) 3* 17
Hugo Mallo (Celta) 9 1 (1) 5 16
Alexis (Alavés) 11 1 4 16
Boateng (Las Palmas) 11 1 (1) 3 16
Luis Suárez (Barcelona) 12 1 3 16
Raúl García (Athletic) 13 1 2 16
Feddal (Alavés) 10 2 3 15
Deyverson (Alavés) 13 0 2 15
Camacho (Málaga) 13 0 2 15
Illarramendi (Real Soc) 13 0 2 15
Piccini (Betis) 8 2 (1) 3 14
Iñigo Martínez (Real Soc) 11 1 2 14
Jaume Costa (Villarreal) 11 1 2 14
Roque (Las Palmas) 12 0 2 14
Carvajal (Real Madrid) 12 0 2 14
Albentosa (Deportivo) 9 1 (1) 2 13
Roberto Soriano (Villarreal) 9 1 (1) 2 13
Aduríz (Athletic) 10 1 2 13
Pablo Hernández (Celta) 11 0 2 13