Sánchez Martínez was the man in the spotlight this weekend after refereeing the match between Alavés and Real Madrid. Sánchez upset local coach Mauricio Pellegrino when he awarded a penalty to Madrid for what he considered to be hand ball by Deyverson following a Gareth Bale free kick. Although he had his arm raised, the striker claimed that the ball hit him on the head, and although that was true, the much-repeated television pictures didn’t make it clear whether it brushed his arm first. Very difficult then for a referee to tell, and Sánchez decided it had, with the result that Ronaldo drilled home the kick to level the scores. He also gave the visitors a second penalty later on without it being too clear what for (possibly a push by Torres on Ronaldo?), but he waved away appeals by the locals for another spot kick when Theo Hernández was felled by Danilo. Pellegrino and one of his assistants ended up being sent off for their protests, but as Madrid won 1-4 in the end (even with Ronaldo missing that second penalty), maybe it wouldn’t have influenced the result? What was totally unacceptable though were the obscene gestures by the some of the local thugs, in particular one subnormal who was caught by the television camaras exposing himself, and hopefully he and his colleagues will be identifed and prosecuted. There is no place for that anywhere, and it was ugly to watch. (01.11.16)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Martínez Munuera 7 44 3 47
Estrada Fernández 6 42 3 45
Del Cerro Grande 5 36 6 42
Gil Manzano 6 38 2 40
Iglesias Villanueva 6 38 1 39
Hernández Hernández 6 32 3 35
González González 6 33 2 35
Fernández Borbolán 5 30 1 31
Clos Gómez 5 28 2 30
Sánchez Martínez 5 24 4 28