Twenty-eight minutes from time at El Sardinero, Racing Santander were losing to a relegation rival and staring at the bottom three. By the 84th minute they had won the game, swapped places with the visitors, and sent 21,473 people into the night believing again. Edu Expósito's opener for Espanyol lasted seven minutes as an equaliser from Jeanuël Belocian flipped the momentum, and Yassir Zabiri — the Moroccan striker who has become the symbol of Racing's return to the top flight — poked home his eighth goal of the season to complete a 2-1 comeback.
A First Half Stopped by One Man
Racing did the pressing in a goalless first half — they would finish with 23 shots to Espanyol's 11, nine of them on target — and kept running into the same wall: Ángel Fortuño. The Espanyol goalkeeper made seven saves across the afternoon, the biggest a miraculous leg save to deny Sergio Canales after the midfielder had been played clean through around the half-hour mark.
The half's other flashpoint came in the VAR room. Espanyol appealed for a handball penalty against Pablo Ramón, the review ran, and the claim was dismissed because of a prior foul by Roberto Fernández in the build-up. Goalless at the break, with both sides knowing exactly what a goal would be worth.
Seven Minutes That Flipped the Game
Espanyol struck first, and they struck on the break. On 62 minutes, straight from a Racing corner, the visitors countered in numbers and Javi Hernández's ball into the area was finished by Edu Expósito — with a deflection off Jorge Salinas — for 0-1. For a side as short on confidence as Espanyol, it was the goal that was supposed to change their season.
It changed Racing's instead. Seven minutes later the home side were level: Belocian collected Canales' pass at the edge of the area and drove a low, powerful left-footed shot beyond Fortuño. The noise inside El Sardinero told the rest of the story — the home crowd had seen enough to believe the game was there to be won.
Zabiri's Eighth, and a Table Turned Upside Down
The winner came on 84 minutes, and it was a scrapper's goal. A corner caused chaos in the Espanyol six-yard box, Álvaro Mantilla kept the ball alive, and Zabiri got his toe to it first — a poacher's finish for his eighth goal of the season, completing the turnaround in 22 minutes from losing to winning.
What the goal moved matters as much as how it looked. The win lifts Racing out of the relegation places; Espanyol, beaten after leading, drop into them. The pressure on visiting coach Manolo González — already booked during the game — deepens after another lead his side could not defend. And Racing's reward for the comeback is the fixture of the season: Real Madrid visit El Sardinero next Sunday, 14 years after their last trip.
Comebacks at the bottom of the table are worth more than the three points — they move two clubs at once. Racing felt both sides of that on Saturday: the fear of the drop at 62 minutes, and the release of climbing out of it at 84.
Full box score and play-by-play: Gamecast — Racing Santander vs Espanyol. More: Sports front · Stats Hub
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