Controversy in the cup semi-final between Valencia and Barcelona, with referee González González failing to spot Barça keeper Pinto handling the ball as he came out of his area early on in the match. Had he seen it he would surely have given Pinto a red card, and the 1-1 final result may have been very different. Athletic Bilbao were not too happy with Estrada Fernández in the other semi-final either after he ruled out what looked like a perfectly good goal by Muniain. That would have made the result 0-3, and it is hard to see Mirandés coming back like they did after that. Whether either of those decisions would have affected the final outcome is a matter of debate, but it's all fairly academic in the end.
The main talking point at the weekend was at Getafe's Alfonso Pérez stadium, where Ayza Gámez didn't see Real Madrid's Pepe block Diego Castro's shot with his arm inside the penalty area. Madrid were leading 0-1 at the time, and a penalty decision could have cost valuable points for Mourinho's side. That didn't happen though, and Madrid stay seven points above Barcelona in the table. Elsewhere Espanyol felt themselves unlucky that Fernández Borbolán ruled out what looked like a perfectly good strike by Héctor Moreno shortly before half time in their match against Athletic Bilbao (what the heck, there were six goals anyway)! And Euro 2012 referee Velasco Carballo was in scintillating form, sending off three players for second bookable offences in the game between Mallorca and Betis. Warming up for the big event? Watch out Europe, be warned! (08.02.12)
Name | Games played | Yellow cards | Red cards | Total |
Turienzo Alvarez | 13 | 108 | 3 | 111 |
Velasco Carballo | 14 | 98 | 12 | 110 |
Muñiz Fernández | 14 | 97 | 10 | 107 |
Paradas Romero | 13 | 98 | 8 | 106 |
Iglesias Villanueva | 14 | 91 | 8 | 99 |
Teixeira Vitienes, J.A. | 13 | 89 | 5 | 94 |
Iturralde González | 12 | 84 | 9 | 93 |
Alvarez Izquierdo | 13 | 85 | 5 | 90 |
Teixeira Vitienes, F. | 16 | 85 | 5 | 90 |
Fernández Borbolán | 14 | 83 | 5 | 88 |