Espanyol 3 - Racing Santander 0

Espanyol: Mora; Cristóbal, Lopo, Rotchen, David García; Galca (Morales 78'), Sergio; Velamazán, Martín Posse (Lardín 80'), Roger; Tamudo (Serrano 55'). 4-2-3-1.
Racing: Ceballos; Pineda (Vivar Dorado 46'), Arzeno, Mellberg, Juanma; Espina (Jaime 78'), Ismael; Manjarín, Morán (Rushfeldt 65'), Amavisca; Mazzoni. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Espanyol: David García, Martín Posse for Navas, Morales / Racing: Pineda, Mellberg, Morán for Tais, Txema, Regueiro.

Goals:
1-0. 24. Roger. Controlled pass from right and lobbed ball over keeper.
2-0. 61. Serrano. Ran on to through ball at far post to poke ball home.
3-0. 72. Roger. Low shot from left of area which keeper got a hand to.

Espanyol recorded their fourth victory in five games to move to within two points of the UEFA spots in the league. The star of the match was Roger, who scored a goal in each half to whet the appetite of the watching scouts, growing in numbers every week as the club's financial difficulties make them a must on every manager's bargain basement shopping list. This week representatives of Chelsea, Parma and Sevilla were in the crowd, together with Rangers manager Dick Advocaat, who was watching (and who later discarded) Galca. Roger was playing further forward than usual in this game, youngster David García making his first appearance in the ex Barcelona player's more regular position (this season at least) of left back.

The last time that Racing Santander won away against Espanyol, Paco Flores got the goal for the Catalans. That was some 19 years ago, and now a rather more corpulent Flores has taken over the reigns as manager at Montjuic. For some of the Racing fans it must seem like 19 years since their last away victory, which by coincidence was exactly one year ago against non other than Real Madrid. Their manager at that time was Gustavo Benítez, and he is now back in charge after brief spells from Andoni Goikoetxea and Gregorio Manzano. He will have his work cut out though to save them this year, and they put up little resistance as Espanyol cut through their defence time and time again. Only Ceballos saved them early on, but even he could do nothing as Roger controlled the ball on the left of the area and lobbed the ball over the stranded keeper in a straight copy of his brother Oscar's goal earlier in the season.

Racing started to show some sign of life, and Morán went close on a couple of occasions. Benítez brought on Vivar Dorado at the interval, but then Serrano added a second on the hour mark only minutes after replacing the injured Tamudo. A third from Roger with almost twenty minutes left on the clock ended any hope of a revival from the visitors, who ended the day down in nineteenth position. One of the disadvantages of playing Racing this season is that your next four games are against Depor, Barça, Madrid and Mallorca under the systematic Spanish league calendar, but Espanyol's recent success has put them in good heart for the oncoming onslaught. Flores chose a good time to accept the club's offer of staying on as manager for another season having finally done enough to convince them of his worth, but the real test is coming up. Will they still be in the running for Europe in four weeks time?