Another seven red cards in the midweek round of matches, although four of them didn't even get on to the pitch. Betis coach Serra Ferrer and his phisio Alomar Serra were both shown straight red cards in the game against Deportivo, the first for inadvisably taking a leaf out of Wayne Rooney's book and ironically applauding the referee for giving a penalty against his side, and the latter for acosting the official a couple of minutes later as he walked off at half time and telling him that he had really sh*t it this time. Excrement was involved in another red card incident at San Sebastian, where Real Sociedad's Doctor Escobar lost his professional cool and likened referee Teixeira Vitienes to the same, The reason for the team medic's ire was that Teixeira had just shown two yellow cards to Barkero as he was warming up on the touchline, the first for protesting to a linesman and the second for insolently telling the referee "what, can't you see it?" when asked to turn his back to show his number.

There was no doubt though about which sending off captured all the headlines midweek, Jonathan Woodgate's jinxed career taking another blow as he was shown two yellow cards on his debut for Real Madrid. After a year on the sidelines the England defender finally got his chance against Athletic Bilbao, but after scoring in his own net he was lucky to stay on the park when he was only booked for a crunching tackle on Gurpegui. An American football style block on another opponent in the second half though earned him a second caution, and he had to go. Meanwhile our leading villain from two seasons ago Lopo was shown a straight red for a hard tackle late in Espanyol's game at Santander, and ex Racing midfielder Anderson Silva took the long walk after a second bookable offence when playing for Málaga against Alavés. (23.09.05)