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Ten-Man Valencia Stun Racing To Win At Last

The slide has stopped: free-falling Valencia soar once more after a spirited win in Santander...

Mar 22, 2009 5:58:20 PM

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Racing Santander 0-1 Valencia

After eight games without a win, Valencia fans finally have cause to celebrate after their ten-man troops netted a late goal to pick up a much-needed win over wasteful Racing Santander, who missed a penalty in the last minute.

Los Che traveled the rocky road to Cantabria bereft of several regulars. Alongside David Villa and David Silva on the treatment table was right-back Miguel. Goalkeeper Renan Brito, left-back Asier Del Horno, and Carlos Marchena were out, too, the latter being suspended.

Racing were bereft of three key forwards in the form of Mohammed Tchite, Pedro Munitis, and the ineligible Nikola Zigic, while Marcano was out at left-back.

With so many influential attackers out for both sides the match was slow in producing excitement. Not until the 20th minute, in fact, was there to be a decent chance on goal.

Nonetheless Racing had the best of these early stages, coming up the left flank through Christian Fernandez and Oscar Serrano to decent effect.

16 minutes in Ruben Baraja, struggling to control the attacking midfield, was booked for a foul on Juan Valera by referee Rodríguez Santiago, and Alexis joined him for bringing down Toni Moral soon afterwards.

Then came the chances: first Peter Luccin won a corner off a 30-yard free-kick, and then Christian's inswinger to Jonathan Pereira saw the forward only narrowly miss the target.

Pereira was again to enjoy a chance eight minutes before the break as his side continued to dominate as the shaky Hedwiges Maduro let him in on goal, but again the finish let him down.

Racing were disappointed to go in level at the break, as were Los Che. Visiting coach Unai Emery threw David Albelda on for the anonymous Edu in an attempt to stem the midfield tide.

Racing were handed a massive boost as, a mere 20 seconds after the restart, Alexis picked up his second booking for going in late on Jonathan Pereira: off he went and Racing were a man up.

Nonetheless the visitors were probably having their most positive spell of the match in the immediate aftermath of the red card, prompting home coach Lopez Muniz to add Jesus Berrocal to the mix in favour of Valera.

On the hour mark Pablo Hernandez passed up the most glaring opportunity of the game by weaving past Oriol and going on-on-one with Tono, only to win a corner instead of a goal.

Ten minutes later the excellent Pablo was again troubling the stopper as Tono was compelled to make a one-handed save.

But Racing controlled the closing stages nonetheless, Toni Moral passing up an even better chance than Pablo's after Emiliano Moretti's terrible clearance put him through on goal to ill effect.

The pressure, though, was largely from the ten men, and it wasn't too surprising when they scored. A superb piece of teamwork saw Pablo Hernandez cross brilliantly for substitute Mata in the centre of the area, the ex-Madrid man making no mistake with the finish.

Gonzalo Colsa nearly equalised with a header at the other end six minutes from time, but Valencia had done enough to arrest their slide down the table.

It didn't seem that way right at the end, though: right at the death Raul Albiol fouled Jonathan Pereira in the box, allowing Oscar Serrano the chance to shoot from the spot. However, as ball clattered woodwork, Racing's afternoon was summed up for all to see.

Racing Santander 0-1 Valencia

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