Many believe that Real Madrid are among the roughest teams in football, but the LaLiga champions are, in fact, not one of the dirtiest clubs that collected the most red cards in the 2019/20 campaign.
Check out the gallery above to see the dirtiest teams, and how many red cards they collected, in Europe's top five leagues this season!
Football may be known as "the beautiful game", but on some days it gets ugly, and often on these days, a flash of red sends someone for an early shower.
Whether it is a crunching tackle, a collection of offences or occasionally a harsh decision, a red card is not easily earned.
Looking at statistics over the course of the 2019/20 season from WhoScored, it is interesting to see which clubs had to play with a man down on multiple occasions.
The Premier League, known for its physicality and bruising encounters, would often be at the top of the list in many minds, but statistics show that they are lagging behind many others.
Arsenal were the dirtiest of the bunch in the EPL this season, with five red cards in total, but they are well below the leaders. This was the lowest tally across the top five leagues in Europe, and just ahead of them was the Bundesliga. Bayer Leverkusen were the bruisers here, with six red cards, just ahead of Union Berlin.
LaLiga were one notch above, with Espanyol and Real Betis topping the bunch there, with both clubs earning nine red cards in the 2019/20. FC Barcelona shared joint-fourth spot in the Spanish top flight, but managed more red cards than Arsenal, with six.
The Serie A were joint winners, living up to their reputation as a defensively solid league. Uncompromising tackles and the ability to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from scoring 50 goals or more, there were 11 clubs who managed to get more than five red cards in 2019/20.
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Genoa stood out above the rest with 10 sending-offs over the campaign, while six clubs shared second place with seven red cards of their own, including AS Roma and Inter Milan.
Interestingly, Ligue 1 shares the title with Serie A with AS Monaco also hitting double figures with 10 red cards this season – check out the gallery above to see the dirtiest clubs in Europe's top five leagues this season.
Are you surprised by any of the teams that can be found in the gallery above? Have your say in the comments section below.
