Valencia squandered the chance to equal a club record as Racing Santander claimed a valuable point in their survival bid.
Valencia frustrated on the road
Valencia squandered the chance to equal a club record as Racing Santander claimed a valuable point in their survival bid.
The in-form Los Che were chasing a six successive league win but were held to a 1-1 draw on Monday at El Sardinero.
Racing, fresh from their takeover by Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, looked set to give their new owner a winning start as Ariel Nahuelpan gave them a first-half lead.
But the advantage lasted until 12 minutes from time when a superb strike from Tino Costa got the visitors back on level terms, before both sides had a man sent off near the end.
The result means fourth-placed Valencia move four points clear of fifth-placed Espanyol, who lost to Villarreal on Sunday, while 17th-placed Racing put a three-point buffer between themselves and the relegation places.
Confident fashion
In contrast to Valencia with their five-game winning streak, Racing came into the match in poor form and without a victory since mid-December, but they started in confident fashion and looked certain to take the lead in the 30th minute when Adrian fed the ball to the unmarked Markus Rosenberg 12 yards out.
However, Rosenberg's low shot clipped the foot of Valencia goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and struck the left-hand post before rebounding away.
Racing did not have to wait too much longer to take the lead though - three minutes in fact - as Ariel showed good bravery to head his side in front.
Valencia failed to clear a corner and, after the ball had fallen into space in the area following a miscued header from visiting midfielder Ever Benega, Ariel stuck his head in-between Los Che duo Guaita and Ricardo Costa to nod the ball into the net.
Equaliser
For a while that looked like being the match-winning strike, but Valencia finally got the equaliser they had been searching for in the 78th minute through Tino Costa.
He brought down a deep corner on the edge of box before thumping an unstoppable left-footed shot into the near top corner for his third league goal of the season.
Valencia were reduced to 10 men in the 89th minute when Ricardo Costa was shown a second yellow card after catching Ariel in the face with an arm as he attempted to tackle the Racing forward.
But the home side's numerical advantage lasted just 60 seconds before they lost Mehdi Lacen to two yellow cards, the second shown for complaining about the first.
Valencia had one late chance to win the game - and keep their winning streak intact - in stoppage-time, but Roberto Soldado's low shot was blocked by the feet of Racing goalkeeper Antonio Tono as the spoils were shared at El Sardinero.
