An average week with four red cards and sixty-one yellows in the league, and eleven yellows in the two cup semi-final games. The red cards were concentrated in two matches, with Carmona Méndez making a bit of a mess of the team line ups of Málaga and Las Palmas with twelve cards in all, leaving the Andalucians without four of their players for their next game and the Canary Islanders missing three. And it was not really a dirty game! Neither manager complained much though, which is more then can be said for the performance of Pérez Pérez in the game between Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla.

Nerves were jangling when he was named for this match after the controversy surrounding Valencia's disallowed goal against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago, especially at Rayo following their last game when Téllez Sánchez left them defeated with a series of decisions against the Madrid based side. This time though it was Sevilla manager Joaquín Caparrós who was unhappy after the novice referee appeared to compensate last week's errors favouring the home side, especially when he sent off Fredi with a direct red card and then a few minutes later (albeit after he sent off Rayo's Baljic) only gave a yellow to De Quintana after he left Reyes sprawling with a cut to the face which required four stitches. Last week's victim Gregorio Manzano went over to try and calm down Caparrós, but ended up in a heated argument with him and Pérez Pérez booked them both. Handbags at five paces. It was not easy for the officials though, with fans throwing all sorts of things on to the pitch including a bathroom tap, and with prior incidents in previous matches, Rayo's ground could be closed as a result. . (04.02.02)