Racing de Santander 1 : 1 Valencia - Valencia denied club record

Posted Monday, January 31, 2011 by PA

In-form Valencia missed the chance to equal a club record of six successive league wins after being held to a 1-1 draw by Racing Santander.

Racing, playing their first match since this weekend's takeover by Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, looked like giving their new owner a winning start as they took a first-half lead through Ariel Nahuelpan - an advantage they held until 12 minutes from time.

However, Valencia got themselves back on level terms with a superb strike from Tino Costa before both teams finished the match with 10 men, Los Che defender Ricardo Costa and Racing's Mehdi Lacen both being dismissed near the end.

The result means fourth-placed Valencia move four points clear of fifth-placed Espanyol, who lost to Villarreal yesterday, while 17th-placed Racing put a three-point buffer between themselves and the relegation places.

In contrast to Valencia with their five-game winning streak, Racing came into the match in poor form and without a victory since mid-December, but they started in confident fashion and looked certain to take the lead in the 30th minute when Adrian fed the ball to the unmarked Markus Rosenberg 12 yards out.

However, Rosenberg's low shot clipped the foot of Valencia goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and struck the left-hand post before rebounding away.

Racing did not have to wait too much longer to take the lead though - three minutes in fact - as Ariel showed good bravery to head his side in front.

Valencia failed to clear a corner and, after the ball had fallen into space in the area following a miscued header from visiting midfielder Ever Benega, Ariel stuck his head in-between Los Che duo Guaita and Ricardo Costa to nod the ball into the net.

For a while that looked like being the match-winning strike, but Valencia finally got the equaliser they had been searching for in the 78th minute through Tino Costa.

He brought down a deep corner on the edge of box before thumping an unstoppable left-footed shot into the near top corner for his third league goal of the season.

Valencia were reduced to 10 men in the 89th minute when Ricardo Costa was shown a second yellow card after catching Ariel in the face with an arm as he attempted to tackle the Racing forward, but the home side's numerical advantage lasted just 60 seconds before they lost Lacen to two yellow cards, the second shown for complaining about the first.

Valencia had one late chance to win the game - and keep their winning streak intact - in stoppage-time, but Roberto Soldado's low shot was blocked by the feet of Racing goalkeeper Antonio Tono as the spoils were shared at El Sardinero.