Eibar beat Granada 3-0 at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium on Saturday in the fourth round of the Segunda División. It was a performance built on efficiency rather than possession, and by then anyone watching knew the hosts would take the points. Three goals in the first half set up a comfortable afternoon.
Iván Gil opened the scoring in the eighth minute, and to be fair Granada rarely looked like troubling the back line. Malcom Ares doubled the advantage just before the break, and then Jon Guruzeta added a third in the fifty-eighth minute. The visitors had the ball more often but could not convert their time on the pitch.
Granada's evening turned sour in the seventy-sixth minute when Jair Amador was shown a red card. They had already been chasing the game, and losing a man made the task impossible. The hosts pressed on without much difficulty after that.
The statistics tell the story of a mismatch. Granada held 65 per cent possession but created no big chances, while Eibar registered four and took eight shots on target. Expected goals stood at 1.2 for the home side against 0.81 for the visitors. Many shots with one goal means chances went begging — and Granada had the most shots but the least to show for it.
Eibar moved up to second place with nine points from four games, three wins and one defeat. Granada remain eighth on seven points, two wins, one draw and one loss. The hosts had won their last two matches before this, while Granada's recent form had been inconsistent. This result ended any momentum the visitors might have gathered.
