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Real suffer nightmare in Santander

Two late penalties from Racing Santander's Ezequiel Garay, the winner coming just seconds before the end of regulation time, handed nine-man Real Madrid a demoralizing 2-1 defeat on Saturday.

It was a bad night for Real in every respect.

Not only did Real's eight game unbeaten streak come to an end, the 29-time Spanish champions squandered the chance to overtake league leaders and bitter rivals Barcelona and go top of La Liga for the first time in 18 months.

Real also ended the game with just nine men after defenders Ivan Helguera and Alvaro Mejia were sent off in the final minutes of the game.

"We came to a difficult ground and played a good game, one of our best of the year. We dominated the first half and Racing only did well at corners and with the two penalties," Real coach Fabio Capello grumbled.

"The second penalty came when our players were talking to the referee about a free kick," the indignant Italian coach added.

Real remain in third place, two points behind Barca and one in arrears of second-placed Sevilla, ahead of the leading pair's games yesterday.

Garay started out as the game's villain before redeeming himself by scoring twice from the spot.

The Argentine made an uncharacteristic mistake after 33 minutes and his weak clearance was easily blocked on the edge of the area by his compatriot Gonzalo Higuain.

Higuain then found Raul Gonzalez unmarked in the area and the Real captain's low left foot shot from 10m slipped under the body of Racing goalkeeper Tono Rodriguez.

Things started to go wrong for Real 18 minutes from the end when Mahamadou Diarra's late challenge on Lionel Scaloni in the area gave Garay the chance to make amends for his earlier error and he equalized with a right foot shot.

Helguera was sent off for his second yellow card four minutes before the end and Fabio Cannavaro then gave Racing, and Garay, their second penalty with a foul on Nicola Zigic before Mejia was also dismissed in injury time.

"We are very angry with the referee. We don't think the two penalties were fair," Cannavaro said.

"Diarra got to the ball and I didn't foul Zigic. It's very difficult to bring down someone who is 2.02m and I'm not that [tall]," added the World Player of the Year in reference to Racing's giant Serbian striker.

At the other end of the table, relegation-threatened Real Sociedad gave themselves a lifeline to safety with a 1-0 win at Real Betis later on Saturday.

Sociedad defender Javier Garrido got his first goal in four years of playing in the top flight of Spanish soccer with a swerving left foot free kick from 25m after 33 minutes.
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