Zabiri's brace ends Alavés's unbeaten start as Racing Santander win 2-1

Alavés arrived at El Sardinero unbeaten in the league and left it having lost for the first time this season. Ville Koski had put the visitors ahead on 18 minutes, but Yassir Zabiri levelled it before half-time and put Racing Santander in front early in the second half, and the hosts held on despite finishing the game with ten men for a 2-1 win.

Koski's opener came from a well-worked move down the left that Racing's defence never got close to. Zabiri's response arrived seven minutes before half-time, and he turned provider for himself eight minutes into the second half, latching onto a through ball to beat Antonio Sivera and make it 2-1. Racing were reduced to ten men in the 89th minute when defender A. Almeida picked up a second booking, but Alavés could not find a way through in the closing minutes.

Score by half

Line-ups

Racing Santander lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Agirrezabala in goal, Mantilla, Ramón, Belocian and Salinas at the back, Martín and Prati screening the midfield, and García, Canales and Vicente in support of Zabiri. Alavés set up in a 4-4-2 with Sivera behind Pérez, Koski, Tenaglia and Otto, Suárez, Ibáñez, Blanco and Rebbach across midfield, and Díaz and Boyé up front.

Alavés's first defeat, Racing climb out of the bottom half

Alavés had won three of their first four league games and drawn the other, beating Getafe and Villarreal and putting five past Osasuna before this trip to Cantabria, and went into the round second on 10 points, two behind leaders Barcelona. This was their first loss of the campaign, and it comes despite outshooting the home side: Alavés had 16 attempts to Racing's 11 and put eight of them on target to Racing's four, numbers that suggest the result could easily have gone the other way. Racing Santander, who had taken just four points from their first four matches with a defeat at Getafe among them, move up to seven points and out of the bottom half of the table with a result that will matter more than the underlying numbers suggest.