Racing Santander vs Villarreal

Three wise men: Juanjo (left) with Castaños and Pinillos

The numerous distractions away from the pitch during the week didn’t seem to adversely affect the Racing Santander players today, as they took on Villarreal at home in a bitterly cold and half empty Sardinero. A spirited display by La Primera’s most troubled club saw them take all three points in what was a valuable and important win.

With the honourable departure of Hector Cúper midweek, technical director, Jaunjo González and his trusted duo of Fede Castaños and Pablo Pinillos were left to stir the Cantabrian ship against the invading Yellow Submarine. This they managed to do successfully,  rousing a fighting mentality from the team, which has not been a common feature of late. The return of Gonzalo Colsa in defensive midfield, who started his first game for the club in over six months, was a huge boost to the home side. The 32 year worked tirelessly throughout the encounter and showed why he is considered the heart and lungs of the team.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Garrido had a selection headache for the first time in a long time, with both Cani and Nilmar finally available to help reinforce the attack after their injuries. In the end the ex-Levante coach opted to start with Cani in midfield and stuck with Marco Rubén alone up front. Jonathan de Guzman was sacrificed so as to better utilise star man, Borja Valero, who because of squad deficiencies had been pushed back deep into midfield in recent games, a position which hampers his creative talents.

This jinking around with the line up didn’t have the desired effect, as Racing’s compact five-man was able to close off the lines of distribution to the likes of Cani, Valero, Hernan Pérez and Rubén. The visitors appeared frustrated and short of ideas for the entire first half, only managing a single paltry shot, which was off target.

Los racinguistas were by far the better side to begin with, and the fruits of their labour came in 27^th minute when a wonderful triangular move between Arana, Colsa and Adrián caught Villarreal off guard leaving Arana to tear up the right flank and wipe in a dangerous cross which Christian Stuani obligingly headed into Diego Lopez's net.

Villarreal’s flatness continued throughout the first half with their best move culminating with Toño in the Racing goal easily smothering a Cani cross which was meant for the maraudering Marco Ruben on the back post.

Racing could have made it two nil just before the whistle when a threatening corner kick by Papakouly Diop fell to an unsuspecting Colsa who couldn’t get a proper hold of the ball and stir it in.

Garrido changed things up for the second 45, taking Cani and Ángel off to bring on de Guzman and Nilmar. The shake up nearly worked, when in the 52^nd minute former Mallorca talisman, de Guzman launched a missile of a shot from about 30 yards which just whistled over Toño’s cross bar.

However, this invigoration soon petered out and it became obvious that Villarreal simply weren’t at the races today. Even with Racing beginning to tire and losing their original intensity, Garrido’s men could find no way through and would be punished for such a lousy first half performance.

With 17 minutes to go Juanjo took off Pedro Muintis for Christain Fernández in a clear move to rough out the storm and hold on to their narrow lead. His defensive decision could, and probably should, have ended in disaster had Ruben been more clinical after a great act of technical brilliance from Hernán Pérez on the right found him free on the back stick in a clear goal scoring position. Instead the argentine struck his shot into the heel of Marc Torrejón and the ball went out for a corner.

The match finished with Racing deservedly being crowned winners. Whether their rejuvenation was a once off, a phenomenon often occurring to teams keen to impress a new coach, remains to be seen. Villarreal’s woes on the road show no signs of letting up though, which real cause of concern for them.

FT: Racing Club de Santander 1 Villarreal 0: Stuani (27)

Fact: Juanjo continued his 100% record managing Racing today. His one and only other time in charge of the team resulted in a 4-1 victory to put Salamanca out of the Cup in 2009.