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On Saturday, two matches of the 30th round of the Spanish championship were played. In a clash of league outsiders, San Sebastian's "Real Sociedad" secured a victory against "Betis" as visitors, while recently started to talk about a surge, Madrid's "Real" suffered a painful blow in Santander, where they lost in the last minute to local "Racing".
The match in Santander started more actively by the hosts, with Iker Casillas tested twice, but the first real opportunity to score came from Mali national team goalkeeper Mahamadou Diarra, whose shot from more than 20 meters made the "Racing" goalkeeper dive sharply.
"Real" rightfully took the lead after playing for more than half an hour, when a mistake by Ezequiel Garay in the penalty area led to Gonzalo Higuain. The young Argentine made a successful pass to captain Raul, who beat Antonio Tono from less than ten meters.
"Racing" almost equalized the score before the end of the first half, but the powerful Nikola Zigic missed the delivery from the side.
At the beginning of the second half, the hosts could have scored, creating another dangerous opportunity in their penalty area, but after another pass from G. Higuain into the penalty area, Ruben Gonzalez almost scored an own goal. In the next attack, G. Higuain himself almost scored with a strong shot, but A. Tono did his job impeccably.
Midway through the second half, "Racing" wasted another great chance to equalize when after a pass from the side, "Real" defender Marcelo missed the ball, but former Royal Club player Pedro Munitis missed an open goal from less than ten meters.
However, after six minutes, "Racing" finally equalized when a questionable penalty was awarded to "Real" after a mistake by M. Diarra before Lionel Scaloni. E. Garay redeemed his error in the first half by successfully converting the penalty.
Not only that, with three minutes left to play, Ivan Helguera, the "Real" defender, received a second yellow card for a tackle against P. Munitis, and a few minutes later inside the penalty area, Fabio Cannavaro brought down N. Zigic, and E. Garay sealed the victory for the hosts with another cold-blooded strike from the penalty spot.
"Real" finished the match with nine players, as Alvaro Mejia, who came on as a substitute, received a red card during added time for a rough tackle against P. Munitis.
The other Saturday matches took place at the "La Cartuja" stadium in Seville, as "Betis" is still banned from playing home matches at their own stadium. The only goal of the match was scored in the 32nd minute when defender Javier Garrido scored an impressive penalty from 25 meters. It was the first away victory for "Real Sociedad" this season.
Statistics:
Sevilla's "Betis" 0 - 1 San Sebastian's "Real Sociedad"
32' [0 - 1] Javier Garrido
Racing Santander 2 - 1 Madrid's "Real"
33' [0 - 1] Raul
73' [1 - 1] Ezequiel Garay (pen.)
90' [2 - 1] Ezequiel Garay (pen.)
87' Ivan Helguera ("Real") sent off
90' Alvaro Mejia ("Real") sent off
Tournament table:
