After Roberto Carlos's red card last week for insulting the referee, this weekend it was Guti's turn. The Real Madrid midfielder said to Fernández Borbolán "que jeta tienes", literally "what a snout you have" but metaphorically "you have a lot of nerve". Guti was probably upset though, partly about being held to a draw by struggling Real Sociedad and partly about being left out of Luis Aragonés's 33 man squad which was called up for a pre-World Cup pep talk next week.

One man who was called up by Aragonés was Barcelona's Puyol, but he too was sent off after picking up two rather strict bookings. Elsewhere one of Osasuna's twin brothers Miguel Flaño was was shown a straight red for emulating his goalkeeper with a fisted save to stop a shot from Alavés from entering the net, and Málaga's Fernando Sanz was also sent for an early bath for handling the ball against Getafe, albeit that his movement was more discrete.

Two of Sanz's colleagues, Jesús Gámez and Antonio López, will also miss the next match after picking up their fifth bookings of the season, the same as Joaquín (Betis), Coloccini and Manuel Pablo (Deportivo), Jarque (Espanyol) and Moretti (Valencia). Moratón (Racing) and Toledo (Zaragoza) will also have to serve out a one match ban after they were both shown their tenth yellow cards this weekend. (11.04.06)