This looks like being a hard year for Real Madrid. Every since the Madrid supporting José María Aznar lost the general election to Rodríguez Zapatero things have gone downhill. Far be it from us to read anything in to it, but the current president confesses to being a Barça fan, and since his rise to power, referees seem to be less sympathetic to the Merengues!

And so it was once again this weekend, with Rodríguez Santiago causing an uproar at Montjuic. Everything erupted when Jarque headed De la Peña's free kick past Casillas for what was to be the only goal of the match, It all happened very quickly, but many players say they stopped as they heard a whistle from the general direction of Rodríguez, who did in fact have his whistle in his mouth. But despite the heated protests from the Madrid players, the referee awarded the goal to Espanyol.

After the match there was much written in the press, with the Galacticos protesting that the game should have been stopped, and even some Espanyol players saying that they heard something (Sergio Ramos and Lopo were tussling at the time, and players from both sides thought a foul had been awarded against them). Rodríguez finally came out and said the whistle must have come from the crowd as he didn't blow his, but Madrid were adamant he did, and will actually be asking the authorities for the match to be repeated (something which is very unlikely to happen).

Guti summed it up though very succinctly: saying that he didn't see any conspiracy against his side, and if Madrid had been able to score a couple of goals none of this would have happened. We are inclined to agree. (20.09.05)