This week it was the turn of Moreno Delgado to make the headlines. The referee gave Real Madrid a helping hand by turning a blind eye to an early goal by Athletic Bilbao's Orbaiz when his shot from almost forty metres bounced down off the crossbar and over the line. Neither Moreno nor his linesman saw the incident clearly though as they were up with play in midfield, and once again the cry went out for some sort of technology which would allow this sort of thing to be picked up. Curiously Moreno is from a part of Spain not renowned for helping out Real Madrid, Catalonia. His ancestors must be turning in their graves!

Elsewhere all eyes were on Velasco Carballo, who was officiating in the match between Levante and Zaragoza. Last week's protests by the Zaragoza fans seemed to pay off as the referee turned down two penalty appeals by the locals. Home team manager Bernd Schuster was reluctant to comment too much after getting into trouble with officials a couple of times earlier in the season, but once again he was not a "conejo feliz". Could there be more red card waving by the fans, this time at Levante's next home match? (21.02.05)