Real Madrid fans open fire on Barcelona and Tebas

Real Madrid supporters have escalated their campaign against Barcelona in the notorious Negreira case. They seized on the Champions League tie to send a message that reaches beyond Spanish football, determined to keep the cloud of suspicion over Barça hanging on the European stage.

The Bernabéu stands unfurled a banner in English during the second half against Leipzig. It read: "No impunity in the Negreira case", a move designed to carry the supporters' stance to a football audience outside Spain.

That banner caught plenty of eyes. Television cameras picked it out, the giant screens inside the stadium showed it, and it circled the stands in a full 360 degrees. Its appearance coincided with chants attacking Barcelona and Spanish football officials, according to the Madrid-based newspaper "AS".

Catalan newspaper "Sport" posted a video clip on "X" showing the banner clearly.

Fans chanted "Laporta keeps paying", "Tebas, leave now" and "Barcelona: corruption", alongside chants accusing the Spanish Federation of corruption and others bearing the phrase "Negreira is still refereeing", in a fresh escalation over the controversial case.

The banner and the protest chants ran for about five minutes. They folded it away just as Arda Güler scored Real Madrid's second goal, ending one of the most striking crowd messages of the night.

Real Madrid have pushed the case further still, placing the file before UEFA in a bid to keep it on the radar of footballing bodies beyond Spain.