Real Valladolid 1-0 Racing Santander

Friendly Match: Estadio Juan Carlos Navarro, Medina de Rioseco

Real Valladolid 1 (Óscar Plano 79’)

Racing Santander 0

A keenly contested affair saw Real Valladolid emerge victorious over Racing Santander, courtesy of an Óscar Plano goal, to lift the 5th Trofeo Canal de Castilla.

Played in the town of Medina de Rioseco, just over 40km north-west of Valladolid, the match had more bite to it than Pucela’s previous encounters this summer so far. Racing Santander gave a second half debut to their new signing from Cádiz, Nico Hildago, but also had Moi Delgado – on a season-long loan from Real Valladolid – in their starting line-up. Sergio’s side once more went with almost an entirely different eleven in each half, while there was the first action of the preseason with the senior side for defender Mohamed Salisu who had not made the trip to North America.

Nacho was the first to test the Racing goalkeeper; his looping cross from the left flank looked like it may evade Luca Zidane’s grasp but the keeper stretched to pull the ball in from under the bar. Five minutes later, Toni Villa spotted Luca off his line and went for goal from deep inside his own half with an audacious attempt. Although the shot was off target, it had the Real Madrid-loanee scrambling to retreat before patting the ball down. Seconds later, the Frenchman was called into action again to deny Sandro after Enes Ünal had outmuscled Sergio Ruíz to play the ball into the path of the big striker, but he saw his rasping effort held well by the goalkeeper.

Los Verdiblancos had the ball in the net when Álvaro Aguado lost possession in midfield, which Moi then channelled to Álvaro Cejudo who played in Alberto Cayarga. José Antonio Caro blocked Cayarga’s shot into the path of David Barral who knocked in the rebound, only to see the flag up for off-side.

The referee went to his pocket just shy of the half-hour mark to book Cejudo who had tripped Sandro after losing the ball to him. There were claims that Sandro had shoulder-barged him down, but the official took more of a dim view of Cejudo felling his opponent as he broke away. Sergio made his first change of the day, bringing on Anuar in place of Rubén Alcaraz.

Ünal had an opportunity with ten minutes to play in the half. He was fed in from the left flank by the lively Toni Villa, but the Turkish striker found Luca equal to the challenge of his turn and shot with the young goalkeeper holding the ball well. Toni Villa was then the victim of a poor challenge by David Carmona which very much warranted the defender being booked. It was not long before a Real Valladolid player found their name in the book, the recently-introduced Anuar making an ill-advised tackle on Cejudo.

The teams went in at the break with the scores level, but Real Valladolid enjoying the bulk of the possession and clearer chances.

Upon the commencement of the second half, Sergio had made wholesale changes to his side with only Caro and Anuar re-emerging for the next period of play. Óscar Plano was one such adjustment and he saw his first opportunity within five minutes of the restart. He had been played through on goal but dragged his left-footed shot wide across goal.

Míchel entered the fray on the hour mark and assumed the captain’s role. Perhaps it was because he had not yet settled into the game that he missed a chance a few minutes after coming in. Jorge De Frutos, who has had an impressive preseason thus far, played the ball along the ground from the right edge of the box and Waldo cleverly stepped over it which allowed it to run on toward Míchel. However, the midfielder who celebrated his birthday on Monday, was wasteful with an off-target attempt.

Racing nearly took the lead against the run of play with 72 minutes of the match gone. A bad touch from substitute Joaquín back towards Samu Pérez, on the field for two minutes as a replacement for Caro, allowed César Díaz to cut the ball over the goalkeeper into the path of second-half sub Javi Siviero. The forward’s contact was far from clean but it went goalward and only the intervening touch of Antoñito on the goal-line prevented it from finding the net.

De Frutos threatened substitute goalkeeper Lucas Díaz, skipping past his defender on the edge of the area but he flashed his angled drive across the face of goal. However, shortly after, Racing’s luck had run out as Pucela took the lead with 11 minutes remaining.

A slack pass in defence gave Real Valladolid a throw-in on the right flank. Antoñito took the set piece and connected well with Waldo and De Frutos. Waldo continued his run to receive a cut-back from Antoñito and he fired at goal. Díaz managed to block the effort but could only divert it to the feet of the lurking Óscar Plano and the midfielder had an easy job to stab the ball home from close range.

In the closing stages of the match, Real Valladolid had two more chances. The first came from Míchel’s freekick which dipped narrowly over Díaz’s bar. Lastly, in time added on, Fede Barba strode down the left side of the field before sending a very deep cross to the back post which was knocked back in by De Frutos and Óscar Plano drew a fine reaction save from Díaz which saw the game end 1-0 in favour of Sergio’s men.

Next up for Real Valladolid are two fixtures at the Marbella Football Center, against Granada on August 2nd and Mallorca two days later.

REAL VALLADOLID:

First half – José Antonio Caro; Nacho, Mohamed Salisu, Kiko Olivas, Javi Moyano (Capt.), Rubén Alcaraz (Anuar 30’), Álvaro Aguado, Toni Villa, Pablo Hervías, Enes Ünal, Sandro.

Second half – José Antonio Caro (Samu Peréz 70’); Fede Barba, Joaquín, Diego Alende, Antoñito, Fede San Emetorio, Anuar (Míchel 60’), Jorge De Frutos, Waldo, Óscar Plano, Sergi Guardiola.

RACING SANTANDER:

Luca Zidane; Iñaki Olaortua, Jordi Figueros, Sergio Ruíz, David Carmona, Moi, Álvaro Cejudo, Ritchie Kitoko, César Díaz, David Barral, Alberto Cayarga.

Substitutes: Aitor Buñuel, Óscar Gil, Abraham, Mario Ortiz, Lucas Díaz, Rafa de Vicente, Nico Hidalgo, Julen Castañeda, Javi Siverio, Musy y Jesús Puras.

Image: www.realracingclub.es