González Vázquez received the undivided attention of www.realmadrid.com this weekend, Real Madrid's web site listed the referee's "seven deadly sins" in their match against Villarreal, starting off with the penalty which he awarded to the visitors after Pavón brought down Forlán, but appeared to play the ball first. Then came a possible hands by Armando Sá in the penalty area not given, an offside not given on Riquelme, Samuel's second yellow card for what they considered was an accidental hand ball, Salgado's rigorous yellow card which means he will be suspended next weekend, the playing of seven minutes injury time when he signalled five, and finally the sending off of Zidane (and Alvarez) when many more players were involved.

The theme was taken up by the Madrid sporting press the following day, who also mentioned what they considered was a favourable treatment given to Barcelona by officials this season. There was certainly one decision in their favour by Lizondo Cortés this weekend when Víctor Valdés dropped the ball in front of his goal after colliding with the post, the keeper by accident or design falling in to Málaga's Juan Rodríguez and impeding him from scoring. The referee decided it was by accident and waved away appeals for a penalty. Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard dismissed the reports though, saying that people only complain about the referees when things are not going well for them. (26.04.05)