Schuster blames referee after Real are sent packing by rampant Seville

Their team bus was pelted with stones, they were allegedly insulted in the directors' box, the coach Bernd Schuster claimed they were robbed by a biased Barcelona referee, oh and they were also completely taken apart on the pitch by a rampant Seville. It was some Saturday night out for Real Madrid.

Schuster was asked after the 2-0 defeat if he felt the referee had shown prejudice against his team. "Well where is he from?" he asked knowingly and when the answer came back: "He's Catalan", Schuster replied: "Well there you have it, I'm not saying anything more than that. That's enough for me. That says it all." Schuster's whinge was echoed by the midfielder Guti, who left the field, saying "this is robbery."

Back in the real world the Seville coach Manolo Jimenez was pointing out that the home side had already been 2-0 up when the controversial decisions took place, and could easily have had four if their finishing had been better.

They steamrollered a Madrid side who had previously only dropped four points all season. They were two-up in 20 minutes and defending tenaciously they limited Madrid's clear-cut chances to zero.

The midfielder Seydou Keita scored the first with a 25-yard shot that whistled past Iker Casillas' outstretched right palm and then two minutes later the second most prolific scoring double-act in European football combined to make it two. Only Bayern Munich's strike-force of Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose have scored more than Freddie Kanouté and Luis Fabiano who have 23 to their names this season. Kanouté brought down Dani Alves' pass and when Casillas saved his shot Fabiano was in the right place to force home the rebound.

The only danger of Seville not holding on to their lead appeared to be them running out of players after having had to replace the injured defender Federico Fazio and Jose Crespo, whose jaw had been broken by a Mohammad Diarra elbow.

But five minutes into the second period Sergio Ramos was sent off after picking up the second of two rather harsh bookings and so it was Seville who had the man advantage.

That was the first of two decisions to go against Real Madrid as shortly afterwards Raul went down in the box after a clumsy challenge from Ivica Dragutinovic only for the referee Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo to wave away the protests and instead book the forward for diving.

But it was a Seville side that had beaten Madrid not the referee, and the difference should have been greater. As it was there was plenty to complain about. "It's true that we were insulted," the Sporting Director Pedrag Mijatovic said of abuse allegedly received in the directors' box. "We were made to feel intimidated. I have never known anything like it and we had the team bus stoned as well." Despite results elsewhere, Real stayed top of La Liga.