From Paul Giblin:
I admit I spent a good while thinking about what to write here on the way back from Zaragoza, before concluding that the best way to discuss what happened last Saturday night in La Romareda was to get straight down to business.
There has been an ongoing problem with racist chanting in Spain for a while now (ever since Spain national coach Luis Aragones referred to Arsenal striker Thiery Henry in pretty blatant racist language back in November 2004).
Incredibly Aragones is still in his job, and the fallout saw a lot of people think it funny to make monkey noises at black players in games. Samuel Eto'o has bared the brunt of several outbursts - as in Getafe last season (a game we covered on World Sport).
In Zaragoza he clearly reached a point where he had heard enough and didn't want to carry on. It was only a minority, but one person making those sort of noises is one too many.
The good thing is that the fans insulting Eto'o paid for their chants by seeing their team lose a game they could and should have got at least a point from: When Eto'o threatened to walk off, Barca had a corner, in the time it took for things to calm down the Zaragoza defense lost concentration and Barca won the penalty and consequently the match.
On the face of it, that seems a far better punishment than any paltry fine that will be handed to Zaragoza for the behavior of their fans.
By the way, Eto'o also got a lot of abuse as he left the ground half an hour after the final whistle... So there is still a lot of work to be done and as you can imagine it is front-page news all over Spain and has made headlines all over Europe. Not exactly the image Spain needs, but sadly one that, despite improvements in recent months, it probably deserves.
Looking at the other events of the weekend. Is it all over for Real Madrid after their defeat in Mallorca? They are back to 10 points behind Barca, while Valencia's failure to beat Getafe means they are 8 behind in second place.
Atletico Madrid meanwhile can't stop winning and next Saturday sees them visit the Bernabeu looking for revenge for the 3-0 home defeat they suffered to Real earlier in the season.
It could be a difficult week for Real Madrid after two bad defeats and again their season is in danger of falling apart, how Atletico would love to hand them the coup de grace in their own stadium... We will be there in high definition, so stay tuned.
PS: I do sadly have to inform you all that on Saturday there will be NO half time concert, but my version of the 'Cure' classic 'Just like Heaven' will probably be available on a website sooner or later.(oh dear)
Cheers,
PAUL