New Racing Santander coach Miguel Angel Portugal faces another big test of his ability to turn around the struggling Cantabrian outfit when in-form Deportivo La Coruna come to town on Sunday.
Portugal returned for his second spell in charge of Racing last week after replacing Juan Carlos Mandia, who was sacked after guiding the team to just one win in their opening 10 matches.
Portugal had a baptism of fire for his opening fixture back in the hotseat with an immediate return to Real Madrid, where he had worked for two years as technical secretary after leaving Racing in 2007.
Racing lost that match at the Bernabeu 1-0 despite a brave effort and they remain in the bottom four of the Primera Division standings, level on seven points with 18th-placed Atletico Madrid and Xerez in 19th.
Life is unlikely to get much easier for Racing this weekend either, with Depor one of the surprise packages of the season so far.
In their opening 11 games, Depor have picked up seven wins, leaving them in fifth spot and only two points behind Valencia in the fourth and final Champions League place.
An impressed Portugal said of the Galician side: "Deportivo are a very compact and difficult team.
"They have very clear ideas about what they want to do, they've kept the same core of players for the last three seasons and this allows them to play from memory.
"As well as that, they concede few goals and finish off a lot of the chances that they get.
"It's not an accident that they are in fifth spot in the table."
To make matters worse for Portugal, Racing have only taken one point from their five home games this season, scoring just three goals in the process.
The new boss insists his side are not worried about playing at home though, saying: "There is no anxiety about playing at El Sardinero.
"We are aware of the importance of the game against Deportivo and of getting a win, but the clash is not a final, not at all."
Regarding the side that he sent out against Madrid, Portugal added: "There will be some changes but I don't want to make a lot. We need to stay positive and correct some aspects of our play."
Depor's excellent start to the season continued last weekend with a dramatic last-gasp win over Atletico.
The Galicians came from behind to win 2-1 thanks to a penalty converted by Andres Guardado deep into injury time.
Guardado has been isolated with a suspected case of swine flu this week, but it was confirmed yesterday he had not contracted the virus and was today included in Miguel Angel Lotina's 20-man squad for the trip along the north coast of Spain.
Ze Castro and Rodolfo Bodipo are both missing though.
Lotina said ahead of tomorrow's game: "Winning away is difficult. Racing are not going to give us anything. They are in a bad situation, but they have a good squad."
