Víctor Valdés was in the wars midweek, getting himself sent off for an off the ball incident with Dani in the league match against Betis postponed from day 30. Rüstü took his place and was expected to fill in at the weekend, but Valdés had his red card downgraded to a yellow and was allowed to play. He had little work to do though as Barça beat Málaga 3-0 to move up to third in the table. The youngster's clean sheet was one of four in an otherwise high scoring weekend, with Prats (Betis), Cavallero (Celta) and Lafuente (Athletic) all helping their respective sides to victories. Lafuente kept his place ahead of Aranzubia this weekend even though their theoretically first choice keeper Aranzubia had recovered from an injury, the same situation as Real Sociedad's Alberto (Westerveld is fit but wasn't even on the bench) and Málaga's Calatayud (Arnau was a substitute against his old side). Deportivo's number two keeper Munúa also came in to make his league debut ahead of Molina, although that was a technical decision to give the number one a rest before the Champions' League semi-final. (19.04.04)