La Liga Week 32: Valencia - Racing Santander

Colsa 0-1

Villa 1-1

Tchite 1-2

Tchite's goal for Santander's victory

A late strike from Mohammed Tchite shot Racing Santander to a tight victory over Valencia that moves them level on points with fourth placed Atlético Madrid and consigns their hosts to a third consecutive league defeat.

After a decidedly uneventful first hour, Gonzalo Colsa fired Racing into the lead, only for Valencia to equalise a few minutes later through a David Villa penalty.

The home side enjoyed more of the ball, but after missing a couple of good chances they went behind once more, this time for good, as Tchite tapped home at the far post to secure a tightly-contested victory for Marcelino's side.

The game started in scrappy fashion with a number of fouls in the centre of the field as both teams failed to take control of possession and impress themselves on the match.

The substitutes on the bench looked bored, as did the supporters, while the television commentators amused themselves by humming Hubert Bath's 'Out of the Blue' – most famous as the theme for 'Sports Report' on Five Live.

Racing were looking the more likely to score, but only because of some nervous defending from the home side, and were unable to create any clear cut chances inside the opening twenty minutes.

That changed in the twenty-second minute when Tchite was put through on goal by a perfectly weighted pass from Ayoze Diaz, but the Burundi-born striker could only place the ball wide of the post with just Timo Hildebrand to beat.

Tchite fired dangerously across goal just minutes later as Racing began to take control of the match, but neither team was able to get a decent effort on target for the remainder of the half as the teams went into the break goalless.

Valencia looked slightly more lively after the restart, but there was still very little action in the final third for either side, with both of them looking uninspired in attack in the first ten minutes of the half.

The deadlock was finally broken on the hour mark, as Colsa met Oscar Serrano's cross with a powerful header than was well saved by Hildebrand, but fell back into the path of Colsa, who fired home to give Racing the lead.

Ronald Koeman introduced Villa into the action straight after conceding and he levelled the scores just three minutes later, converting from the penalty spot after Fernando Morientes had been felled inside the area by Aldo Duscher

The match had come to life all of a sudden, and Racing felt they should have had a penalty when Emiliano Moretti pulled down Álvarez, only for the referee to signal a free-kick on the edge of the area rather than point to the spot.

Valencia pushed forward and hit the woodwork twice in as many minutes, as Morientes first headed onto the bar and then slid the ball onto the post from two excellent deliveries from Joaquin.

Those misses came back to haunt the home side as Álvarez broke free on the right and squared the ball for Tchite to tap home at the far post to restore Racing's advantage despite looking suspiciously offside.

The home side looked incapable of coming back once more, and so it proved, as Racing held out to take the three points.