Racing Santander 0 - Villarreal 2

Racing: Toño; Pinillos, Garay, Oriol (Sergio Sánchez 17'), Luis Fernández; Jorge López, Duscher, Colsa, Oscar Serrano (Tchite 70'); Smolarek (Bolado 86'), Munitis. 4-4-2.
Villarreal: Viera; Angel, Fuentes, Cygan (Godín 80'), Capdevila; Cani, Josico, Marcos Senna, Matias Fernández (Pires 74'); Nihat (Cazorla 61'), Rossi. 4-4-2.

Team changes: Racing: Oriol, Luis Fernández, Smolarek for Sergio Sánchez, Ayoze, Tchite / Villarreal: Angel, Cani, Matias Fernández, Rossi for Javi Venta, Cazorla, Pires, Tomasson.

Goals:
0-1. 39. Nihat. Connected with Mati Fernández pass to hit angled shot past Toño.
0-2. 76. Rossi. Deflected shot from Pires past keeper with heel near to goal.

Villarreal moved to the top of the table for the first time in their history, for 24 hours at least, after a 0-2 win at Racing Santander on Wednesday night. The locals had the better of the game early on, with Viera saving from Smolarek and Munitis hitting a post. But Nihat latched on to Mati Fernández's long ball to force a shot past Toño close to half time.

Viera had to keep out a Jorge López free kick soon after the restart, but a few minutes later the Cantabrians were left with ten men when Duscher was sent off with a straight red card. And with a quarter of an hour to go Rossi finished things off, deflecting a Pires shot into the net to make it twelve wins out of thirteen in the league, including seven away wins in a row.