Football Copa Del Rey: Getafe 2.10 Over Racing Santander

Iwan Evans - February 28th, 2008 .

GETAFE CF 2.10 (PADDYPOWER) OVER RACING SANTANDER (WIN)

Getafe are good value against Racing Santander in tonight’s Copa Del Rey semi final. They have been doing well this season under Michael Laudrup although many felt they were going to be the average side that they were before Bernt Schuster took over, they are playing some good football and have a good chance of a double. They are currently on a 5 match unbeaten run in all competitions a run which started with a 1-1 draw at Deportivo, followed then with a 1-1 draw in Greece against AEK Athens, a 0-0 draw against Valencia, the hammering of AEK Athens 3-0 and finally the very lucky 1-0 at the Bernabeau.

But a win is a win and they will take a lot of heart from that result despite the controversy surrounding the winning goal. They have kept three clean sheets in a row against 3 very good teams recently and will want to do well in this competition now that qualification through the league in to Europe looks unlikely. Under Schuster they reached the final of the Copa Del Rey losing out to a very good Sevilla team in the final. Their passage to this stage this season has been quite comfortable although they were made to work in the Quarter Finals going through on away goals against Mallorca. They had beaten lower league side Burgos 5-1 on aggregate and Levante 4-0 before in their opening two rounds for them.

Racing are in 7^th, 3 places ahead of Getafe and 6 points clear but I don’t think they are as good a cup team that Getafe are. They have lost only 1 of their last 5 league matches but drawn 3 of those matches and have found it a little difficult to score recently. The main worry for them is their away form as they have won only 3 times away from home in the league this season and their last away win was the 13^th of January at Osausna, their other two away wins came at Levante and Almeria. They have been driven very hard in their last 2 matches in the Copa Del Rey going through 5-3 twice against Zaragoza in the last 16 and Bilbao in the last 8. They looked quite shaky against at the back and that could be a worry coming in to this one.

My pick is Getafe. This competition will give them their best chance of playing in Europe next season and I believe they will once again shine in do or die situations . Their performances recently have really impressed me and I expect them to have an advantage going in to the second leg.

GETAFE CF 2.10 OVER RACING SANTANDER (PADDYPOWER)

Pick: GETAFE CF 2.10

Scores: GETAFE CF 3:1 RACING SANTANDER

Result: WIN

Odds: 2.1 (+110)

Sportsbook: PaddyPower.com

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