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A lively round of cup matches to finish off the year, with referees producing no less than 13 red cards in the 16 fourth round, second leg ties. Getafe coach Luis García in particular was upset with Clos Gómez after his side were knocked out of the cup in the dying minutes by Málaga, claiming that two or three of the referee's decisions had gone against them. One was a goal by Cata Díaz which Clos ruled out shortly before half time for what he considered was a previous foul, another was the foul leading up to Buonanotte's late free-kick equaliser, and two of his players were given red cards. However García chose to overlook that Valera's cross for Getafe's first goal was probably from an offside position, and with Málaga's Weligton red-carded as well things more or less evened-themselves out.

Undiano Mallenco is one of Spain's better referees, but it seems he was taken in by Córdoba's Pepe Díaz in the fifth round tie against Espanyol, awarding him a penalty and sending off Kiko Casilla when television pictures showed that the keeper had not touched the striker in the incident. Undiano also didn't see that Alvaro Vázquez's deflected shot in the first half had crossed the line before a defender cleared, although no damage was done in the end as Sergio García banged in the rebound after it came back off the post. The red card had its effect however, even though Díaz missed the penalty, Córdoba scoring twice late on to take a 2-1 lead in to net week's second leg.

Some controversial decisions by referees at the weekend which could influence the outcome of the league at the end of the season. Turienzo Alvarez waved play on when Pedro's shot hit Raúl Rodríguez on the arm as it was going in the goal in the last minute of a vibrant derby between Espanyol and Barcelona, the 1-1 result leaving Barça now five points behind Real Madrid in the table. Turienzo (if he saw it at all) ruled that the hands was not deliberate, and Guardiola was respectful about the decision, but Rodríguez himself admitted that it should probably have been a penalty. Elsewhere Soldado (Valencia) and Fazio (Sevilla) had valid goals ruled out by Fernández Borbolán and González González respectively in the games at Villarreal and Rayo Vallecano. Who knows what would have happened had they counted, but Valencia drew and Sevilla lost, affecting where they stand in their push for the European spots this season. (10.01.12)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Turienzo Alvarez 11 95 3 98
Paradas Romero 11 81 8 89
Velasco Carballo 10 73 7 80
Fernández Borbolán 12 75 5 80
Muñiz Fernández 11 66 9 75
Pérez Lasa 11 67 8 75
Teixeira Vitienes, J.A. 11 71 4 75
Iturralde González 9 66 8 74
Iglesias Villanueva 11 67 5 72
Undiano Mallenco 11 64 3 67