Iturralde González (and his infamous linesman Rafa Guerrero) had the (dubious?) honour of refereeing games involving Barcelona and Real Madrid this week. First it was the midweek cup semi-final between Barça and Valencia, where the was criticised for not picking up the fact that Eto'o controlled the ball with his hand in the build up to Xavi's last second equaliser.

And then it was Saturday's league match between Recreativo and Madrid, where Recre coach Manolo Zambrano complained that he had favoured the visitors. In particular he allowed Raúl's first goal to stand even though he was slightly offside, then sent off Beto and Quique Alvarez (Rafa spotted the first hitting Heinze), then turned down a possible penalty by Heinze on Ersen, and finally ended the game quickly with the locals fighting back.

Bernd Schuster's post-match press conference lasted less than a minute before he walked out, clearly fed up that the reporters only wanted to know what he thought about the referee this time after recent criticisms of the men in black in other games! (04.03.08)