It’s a brave man who sends off Cristiano Ronaldo, but Ayza Gámez had no doubts when Gurpegi fell to the ground in an off-the-ball incident late on at the San Mamés stadium. From a first camera angle it appeared that Ronaldo had hit the defender with his hand, and afterwards he went forehead to forehead with an irate Iturraspe, following it up with a rude gesture to the fourth official as he trudged off the pitch (see “Villains” section for more). However Ayza obviously had second thoughts, and when asked to clarify his report to the disciplinary committee (in which he said the red card was for hitting Gurpegi), he then said the sending off was for the incident with Iturraspe. A three match suspension ensued, one for the red card and two for the insult (a Madrid based TV company subsequently attempted to show that Ronaldo wasn’t looking directly at the official!), and the appeals committee upheld the referee’s decision. However a couple of days later the referees’ governing body said that Ayza was to be put in the proverbial ice-box for a month or so for changing his report, and Madrid are now thinking of appealing to a higher body to overturn the ban. (06.02.14)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Teixeira Vitienes, J.A. 15 113 7 120
Fernández Borbolán 17 103 6 109
Mateu Lahoz 15 93 6 99
González González 16 87 7 94
Muñiz Fernández 13 85 6 91
Iglesias Villanueva 15 84 5 89
Teixeira Vitienes, F. 13 79 7 86
Estrada Fernández 14 75 6 81
Alvarez Izquierdo 15 76 5 81
Clos Gómez 16 75 4 79