Head coach: José Alberto López · 4-2-3-1 (concordant entre BeSoccer et ElDesmarque du 05/08/2026)
Rank
11th
Pts
9
P
9
Form
🟠 Poor
The essentials at a glance
The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.
Editors' ratings
6/10
Attack
1/10
Defence
3/10
Form
5/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High
11th with 9 pts from 9 matches: 2 wins, 3 draws, 4 defeats.
13 goals scored, 23 conceded.
Osasuna is measured to the Racing of Santander (14: 00 hours) with the return of Jagoba Arrasate to the Navarro bench as the main novelty and the objective of ending the bad streak in the face of cantabros that did not play in Pamplona since 2014 and that accumulate a bad streak at home
Author of a decisive entry against Strasbourg in Ligue 1 this Saturday, Ousmane Dembélé allowed the PSG to overthrow Racing and win (1-3). Passer, then striker, the Ballon d'Or 2025 seems (...)
Osasuna's coach, Jagoba Arrasate, has asked his players for "strength" in the face of tomorrow's clash with the Santander Racing, something that "good pressure" helps to get it. & nbsp; Berriatua's technician has expressed that the sensations are "positive" and that the team, after a week of four sessions, is "ready" for the meeting.
He was a racing champion in 1968, bi over Univ. Catholic the following year, three against River Plate in 1970 and won the tetra only in 2009 against National, Uruguay. To repeat the story, Estudiantes will have to overcome Flamengo in Maracanã. Then you will have to overcome the winner of Palmeiras and Fluminense - the alviverde went ahead in the Maracanã.
Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.
Latest matches
⚠ This team's latest match may not be reflected below yet (football-data.org can lag slightly between the table and the match details) — the table's points/goals are up to date, but momentum, rest and the home/away split may be one match behind. Run a refresh again in a few minutes if needed.
Dvs Valencia CF (H) · 2-2
Lvs RC Celta de Vigo (A) · 0-5
Lvs FC Barcelona (A) · 2-7
Wvs Deportivo Alavés (H) · 2-1
Lvs Rayo Vallecano de Madrid (A) · 2-3
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13 scored / 23 conceded over 9 matches played
Rest: 7 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
2W - 2D - 0L
Away form
0W - 0D - 4L
Statistics
Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.
Goals scored per match
1.6
Goals conceded per match
3.6
At home
4 scored · 3 conceded in 2 matches
Away
4 scored · 15 conceded in 3 matches
Over 2.5 goals
5 of 5
Both teams score
4 of 5
Clean sheets
0 of 5
Failed to score
1 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average
Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.
How Racing Santander play
System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.
Playing identity
Preferred system
4-2-3-1 (concordant entre BeSoccer et ElDesmarque du 05/08/2026)
Philosophy
José Alberto (in charge since December 2022) sets up an attack-minded Racing side in a 4-2-3-1, with a double pivot, high full-backs and a playmaker (Sergio Canales) tasked with linking the lines; the club kept the core of the Segunda-winning squad rather than rebuilding.
Attacking strengths
5 goals in 3 matchdays of LaLiga 2026-27, including a Yassir Zabiri hat-trick (14th, 20th, 35th minutes) in the 3-2 win over Elche on 28/08/2026 — the club's first win in Primera since promotion.
Defensive solidity
5 goals conceded in 3 matches (2-2 against Villarreal, 1-0 at Getafe, 3-2 against Elche): the weak point remains game management in the closing stages, with the team leading 3-0 against Elche before conceding two goals in two minutes (77th and 78th).
Pressing
A fairly high press and possession-based play claimed by José Alberto, who praised after the Elche match “la personalidad con la que hemos jugado en escenarios complicados”; no verified PPDA figures at this stage.
Transitions
A team dangerous on offensive transitions thanks to the pace of its wingers (Íñigo Vicente, Andrés Martín before his injury, Zabiri), but vulnerable on defensive transitions: both of Elche's goals came after the game opened up late on.
StrengthTotal continuity of the project (same head coach, same core as the promotion squad), a highly symbolic return for Sergio Canales, an immediate impact from Zabiri, and a full Sardinero (22,498 spectators against Elche, a ninth consecutive sell-out according to the club).
WeaknessLack of consistency over 90 minutes, a squad still short on the attacking flanks after Andrés Martín's injury — sporting director Chema Aragón had already identified this need according to racinguismo.com (29/08/2026) — and a net negative transfer window balance (approximately -€6.9m according to the Betfair analysis of 14/08/2026).
The mood around the club, and who is missing
Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.
Mood
Squad confidence
High, and fed by a spectacular deadline day. After the club's first Primera win in fourteen years, a 3-2 against Elche with a Yassir Zabiri hat-trick, five registrations were validated on 1 September: Belocian, Pablo García, André Almeida, Aarón Martín and Iker Luque. José Alberto López had said he wanted “a good team by the close of the window”; he got one, right down to keeping Jorge Salinas despite interest from Atlético and Barça. Andrés Martín's injury, ruling him out for six to eight weeks, remains the dark spot in an attack now better stocked. Saturday's trip to Vallecas is nonetheless being prepared amid unusual uncertainty about where the match will even be played.
Coach / players / board relationship
Excellent between José Alberto López, in post since December 2022, and sporting directors who delivered him five players on the last day. Chema Aragón had publicly identified the need for a winger after Andrés Martín's injury: Iker Luque and Pablo García answer it directly. The club also locked down its most sought-after asset, Jorge Salinas, and signed Pablo García for four seasons, until 30 June 2030. Gustavo Puerta's move to Olympiacos was embraced as the funding for that ambition. No friction appears between bench, board and dressing room in the sources consulted.
Mood with the supporters
The euphoria is not subsiding: back in the Primera after fourteen years, El Sardinero sold out, Sergio Canales home again, and now a deadline-day window that has caused envy as far away as Asturias. The press relayed the bitterness of Oviedo supporters, who contrast their own recruitment failures with Cantabria's success. Keeping Jorge Salinas in the face of Atlético and Barça was experienced as a signal of strength rather than a mere accounting move. Saturday's trip to Vallecas is nonetheless being organised in the dark, since the opposing stadium's concession is under a precautionary suspension. On the academy front, the club highlighted its youth team's season opener against Real Oviedo, the same weekend.
Pressure on the head coach
Very low. José Alberto López is the man who won promotion, he opened the season with a win and has just been given five additions in a single day by his board. His message remains cautious — “here merit counts for little, what counts is points” — but it betrays no anxiety about his standing. The club built its continuity around him rather than rebuilding after promotion. The pressure will come from the schedule and squad depth, not from the board.
Club objectives
Survival, with the means of an ambitious promoted side and a squad substantially completed at the end of the window. Racing invested in young profiles with resale value — Pablo García tied down until 2030, Iker Luque until 2030, Belocian on loan from Bayer Leverkusen — while banking Gustavo Puerta's transfer. The development strategy extends to loans out, as with Diego Díaz sent to FC Andorra to play. In the short term, the objective is to back up a home win away from home, correcting the management of the closing stages that nearly cost them the win against Elche.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension. The week's only uncertainty is external and administrative: the Community of Madrid has suspended, as a precaution, the concession of the Vallecas stadium, where Racing are due to travel on Saturday, and Rayo have had to produce ten technical reports to request the measure's lifting. The Cantabrian club is therefore preparing for a trip whose venue was not definitively settled on 3 September. On the pitch, the only residual dispute concerns Andrés Martín's diagnosis, the news agency having referred to an ankle sprain when the club, the head coach and the local press refer to the knee.
Absences
InjuredAndrés Martín — Ligament sprain in the right knee sustained against Elche (taken off in the 58th/59th minute on 28/08/2026); 6 to 8 weeks out according to racinguismo.com and the club's statement. First-choice right winger and one of the attacking leaders. NB: the agency report picked up by Infobae refers to a right ankle sprain — the club, José Alberto (“es la rodilla”) and racinguismo.com refer to the knee.
DoubtfulPedro Felipe — Cautious management mentioned by José Alberto before the Elche match: “No queremos asumir riesgos de recaída.” The exact nature of the injury was not specified by the sources consulted.
BackG. Guliashvili — José Alberto said before the Elche match (27/08/2026) that he “had good feelings this week and is doing well”; a candidate to make up for Andrés Martín's absence.
Before kick-off
What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.
Next match
Racing Santander — RCD Espanyol
At homeSaturday 24 October at 16:15Matchday 10
In 6 days. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.
No preview found for this fixture. The press mostly covers the big games, and usually the day before.
Prediction
EstimateRacing Santander — RCD Espanyol
34 %
1 · Racing Santander
21 %
X · draw
45 %
2 · RCD Espanyol
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 9 matches played by Racing Santander, 9 matches by RCD Espanyol. Confidence: fair
The match details of at least one of the two teams may be one match behind at football-data.org — the home/away split and the home advantage may depend on it.
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
League average. 238 goals scored over 159 team-matches played (19 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.50 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
TeamGoalsRawKept
Racing Santander — attack13 in 9 matches0.960.98
Racing Santander — defence23 in 9 matches1.711.42
RCD Espanyol — attack11 in 9 matches0.820.89
RCD Espanyol — defence12 in 9 matches0.890.93
The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.60 for Racing Santander and 0.60 for RCD Espanyol. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.76 goal scored on average by the host against 1.38 by the visitor, over the 45 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.27; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.43, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.11. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
Racing Santander at home: 2.00 pts/match versus 1.00 overall over 4 matches → ×1.120 RCD Espanyol away: 1.00 pts/match versus 0.89 overall over 4 matches → ×1.042
Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 33.7%, draw 21.5%, away win 44.8% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-1 (only 8.5%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.
The full squad
The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.
Goalkeepers
Julen Agirrezabala (13)
Simon Eriksson (1)
Defenders
Álvaro Mantilla (2)
Manu Hernando (4)
Pablo Ramón (5)
Facundo González (16)
Jorge Salinas (17)
Pedro Felipe (22)
C. Sánchez (30)
Midfielders
Íñigo Sainz-Maza (6)
Gustavo Puerta (8)
Maguette Gueye (14)
Matteo Prati (18)
Sergio Canales (20)
Iván Martín (23)
A. Vallecillo (29)
J. Castellanos (33)
Diego Díaz (34)
Forwards
G. Guliashvili (7)
Juan Carlos Arana (9)
Íñigo Vicente (10)
Andrés Martín (11)
Asier Villalibre (12)
Yassir Zabiri (21)
H. Pérez (38)
Iker Luque
This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.
Squad last verified on 31 Aug 2026 — source: BeSoccer, Racing squad page (accessed 31/08/2026), supplemented by the club's official statement on the arrival of Iker Luque (31/08/2026). Some first names appear only as initials in the source and have been kept as such. The 2026-27 captain's armband could not be verified..
What has been said recently
Chronological feed of verified information about the club.
Pablo García has signed for Racing until 30 June 2030. A winger able to play on either flank, born in Seville on 13 June 2006, he arrives with 33 competitive matches in a Betis shirt, 21 of them in LaLiga and 8 in European competition, and 32 caps at Spain youth level.
Academy-trained midfielder Diego Díaz is on loan at FC Andorra for the 2026-27 season, Racing choosing to have their young players play elsewhere rather than leaving them without minutes.
On the academy front, the Division de Honor youth team opens its season at home to Real Oviedo at the Nando Yosu facilities on Saturday at 16:00, a few hours before the first team's match at Vallecas.
Matchday 4 sends Racing to Vallecas on Saturday 5 September, but whether the match goes ahead depends on an administrative decision: on 2 September Rayo announced that a technical inspection carried out by the Community of Madrid and the auditor CEDIAL, following the precautionary suspension of the concession, had concluded that the ground fully meets safety and public-health requirements, and demanded the immediate lifting of the measure so that they can host the Cantabrians.
The Cantabrian window drew reaction beyond Cantabria: the press relayed the bitterness of Real Oviedo supporters, who compare their own failed signings with those of Racing and Deportivo and regret not having had the Cantabrian sporting director in charge. The article also notes that Racing kept young Jorge Salinas, courted by Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Five registrations were validated by LaLiga on 1 September for Racing: Jeanuël Belocian on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, Pablo García bought from Betis, André Almeida on loan from Valencia CF, Aarón Martín from Genoa and Iker Luque from Atlético Madrid.
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.
