It's holiday time, and
referees were in a festive mood before the mini-break. Rodríguez
Santiago could have shown red cards to Valencia's Del Horno and Albiol on
Saturday for hard tackles on Real Madrid players, and although Marchena did get
sent for an early bath, he could have gone much earlier. And Alvarez Izquierdo
was even more magnanimous the following day, showing a red card to
Almería's Juanito for a second bookable offence in the game at
Gijón and then changing his mind and letting him off. It wasn't so much
Christmas spirit though - he thought he had already booked him once but on
checking his notes he realised that the first yellow card was for someone else!
(23.12.08) |