Although he is too long in the tooth to say so, Bernd Schuster was quite worried that Alvarez Izquierdo had been chosen to referee the match against Athletic Bilbao in the Bernabeu. The Real Madrid coach had already got himself in to trouble last season referring to the official's Catalan origins after some decisions went against his side. And once again Alvarez was in the news with a string of decisions which drew criticism from both sides.

Higuaín was pulled up twice for very dubious offsides, the first after netting against Iraizoz, and there was an unclear penalty when Heinze and Llorente went up for a ball in the penalty area, probably because the defender's hand was in the striker's face but maybe as the ball could have touched Heinze's arm?

A few minutes earlier Michel Salgado was let off a second yellow card and Marcelo was given a yellow card which could well have been red, but Amorebieta was shown a straight red card late on for a tackle on Higuaín which was really only worthy of a booking. A bad tempered game all round though with cross-accusations from both coaches, and not an easy one to referee. (27.10.08)