Getafe edges Racing Santander as Ünal's late strike settles it at the Coliseum

A close-range finish from Enes Ünal in the 80th minute was all Getafe needed to take the three points against Racing Santander. The final score was 1-0 at the Estadio Coliseum, in a match decided by small details: a missed penalty, a late goal and not much else in terms of finishing.

The first half was back and forth with no reward. Getafe had the clearer chances early on, with Andrés García testing the keeper twice in the 9th minute, while Orel Mangala and Ramón Terrats also had warning shots before the break. Racing answered with a Sergio Canales effort in the 14th minute that was stopped right under the crossbar. Nobody could find the net, and the teams went into the break level at 0-0, with Getafe slightly sharper in attack but lacking precision in the final ball.

The second half stayed tight until the moment that changed everything. In the 74th minute, Saba Sazonov brought down Jorge Salinas inside the box, and the referee pointed to the spot for Racing. Two minutes later, Andrés Martín had the chance to put the visitors ahead, but his left-footed effort was saved low. It was the clearest chance Racing had all match, and it slipped through their fingers.

Getafe made them pay for it. In the 80th minute, off an Iván Martín corner following a Racing mistake in clearing the ball, Enes Ünal popped up from close range to finish right-footed through the middle of the goal and make it a final 1-0. The rest of the match, including the six minutes of stoppage time signaled by the fourth official, brought no further scares. Racing tried to respond with the offensive substitutions of Yassir Zabiri and Maguette Gueye, but couldn't generate any real danger against David Soria's goal.

What the numbers say

The stats reflect an even contest, with Racing holding more of the ball but Getafe more efficient in creating chances:

Getafe's single shot on target stands out against their 12 total attempts, a sign that Ünal's goal was the exception rather than the rule when it came to accuracy. Looking at expected goals calculated after the fact from the match's shots, Getafe generated 1.381 compared to Racing's 1.09, figures that confirm just how tight the contest was, even with the missed penalty factored into the visitors' total.

Our preview had given Getafe a 49% chance of winning, against 28% for a draw and 23% for a Racing win, with expected goals of 1.62 for the home side and 1.07 for Racing. The final result lined up with that forecast: Getafe were favorites, and the 1-0 confirms that trend, though the match was closer to a draw than those numbers suggested, especially after the penalty Andrés Martín wasted.

What the result means

With this result, Getafe move to 3 points in the competition, having won one and lost one of their two matches, sitting in eighth place in the table. Racing Santander, meanwhile, remain on just 1 point from two games (a draw and a loss) and sit in 13th, two points behind Getafe in this head-to-head comparison. Andrés Martín's missed penalty will loom largest in the post-match analysis: without that miss, the story of the afternoon at the Coliseum might have been very different.