Some matches ask everything of a team and give little back until the very last. Rayo Vallecano lived one of those Saturdays at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque, trailing twice, dragging themselves level twice, and finally seizing the game by the scruff of the neck within two minutes of the restart. By the end they were clinging on with nine men, hearts in mouths, but the 3-2 was theirs. Nobody who watched it will forget it in a hurry.

This was a contest of momentum and mischief, a game that swung one way and then the other before Sergio Camello decided it belonged to him. The striker scored twice in the space of four minutes either side of the interval, the second of them barely into the second half, and in doing so hauled his side from the edge of another sobering afternoon to a first proper taste of joy this season. For Racing Santander, so bright, so buoyant for an hour, it was a cruel unravelling.

Canales strikes early

Racing barely needed time to settle. Inside four minutes Sergio Canales, that old master of the dead ball, stood over a free kick and curled it with his left foot into the top right corner, leaving the Rayo goalkeeper rooted and the home crowd silenced. It was a goal of pure class, the sort that announces a visiting side means business, and Racing carried that swagger deep into the first half.

Rayo, though, are nothing if not stubborn. On seventeen minutes Andrei Ratiu found space on the right and, from a difficult angle that invited nothing but ambition, thrashed a right-footed shot high into the far top corner. Camello supplied the assist and the noise returned to Butarque in an instant. The full-back's finish was audacious, the kind that ends up on every highlights reel, and it dragged the game level in a heartbeat.

The parity did not last. Just past the half-hour Pablo García picked up possession outside the box and lashed a left-footed effort low into the bottom left corner, restoring Racing's lead and their belief. Twice in front, the Cantabrians looked like a side that had come to Madrid with a plan and the nerve to see it through. The home supporters shifted uneasily; another lead surrendered, another afternoon threatening to slip away.

Camello seizes control

Football rarely rewards patience so handsomely as it did Rayo two minutes before the break. Unai López threaded a through ball of real vision, splitting the Racing back line, and Camello arrived to sweep it right-footed into the bottom left corner. Level again at 2-2, and this time the home side went in at half-time with the wind at their backs and the momentum unmistakably shifting.

Whatever was said in the interval, it worked with brutal efficiency. Barely a minute and a half into the second half, Rayo won a corner, López delivered again, and Camello met it from a difficult angle on the left to steer a left-footed finish into the centre of the goal. Two goals, two assists from the same creator, and a first lead of the entire contest. Butarque erupted, and for the first time all afternoon Rayo held the whip hand.

From there the shape of the game changed entirely. Racing, so composed when ahead, now had to chase, and the home side dug trenches and defended their advantage with the desperation of a team that knows how precious an early-season win can be. The clock, for once, felt like a friend rather than a tormentor.

A frantic finish

Rayo, of course, could not simply see it out in comfort. With five minutes of normal time remaining, Fran Pérez was shown a red card for violent conduct, reducing the hosts to ten and inviting a grandstand finish nobody in blue-and-white stripes had quite dared imagine. Suddenly the final stretch became an exercise in survival, bodies thrown in front of everything, the referee's whistle the only relief.

It got worse before it got better. On eighty-nine minutes Jorge de Frutos followed his teammate down the tunnel, a second red leaving Rayo with just nine men to defend a one-goal lead through the closing moments and stoppage time. It was a scarcely credible test of nerve, and yet somehow the depleted hosts held firm, repelling wave after wave until the final whistle brought release, relief and a roar that shook the little ground to its foundations.

What it means

The three points nudge Rayo Vallecano up to 12th on four points, their record now reading one win, one draw and two defeats, with seven scored and ten conceded. Those numbers still betray a leaky defence, and the two dismissals will bite into the weeks ahead, but the manner of this victory — grit layered over flair — offers a template and a shot of belief. A season that had threatened to sag now has a foundation stone.

For Racing Santander the pain is sharper for how well they played. Level on points at four, they sit 11th with the identical one win, one draw and two defeats, seven scored and eight conceded, but they will drive home from Madrid replaying the two leads they let slip. Canales and Pablo García gave them a platform any side would covet; Camello and the wretched luck of conceding twice in quick succession took it away.

Both clubs remain locked in the congested middle of La Liga, separated by nothing but goal difference and the fine margins that decided this afternoon. Rayo now face the task of navigating suspensions with fresh momentum; Racing must rediscover the ruthlessness that deserted them after the hour. On this evidence, neither will lack for drama when the whistle next blows.