Granada CF 2 : 1 Celta Vigo - Granada off the mark

Posted Sunday, September 30, 2012 by PA

Two goals in the opening 20 minutes were enough to hand Granada their first victory of the season as they withstood a second-half onslaught from Celta Vigo to win 2-1 at Nuevo Los Carmenes.

Guilherme Siqueira had given the home side the lead from the penalty spot after 11 minutes and the Brazilian left-back then brilliantly set up Gabriel Torje to double the advantage moments later.

Iago Aspas quickly reduced the arrears for Celta and the hosts were thankful to goalkeeper Tono as he made a number of fine saves after the break, most notably to deny Park Chu-young an equaliser two minutes from time.

Granada had sat in the bottom three before kick-off having taken only two points from their opening five games but they started with a real desire to put that record behind them as they stormed into an early two-goal lead.

Youssef El-Arabi was key in both goals as firstly he played in Torje on the right edge of the box and when the Romanian was brought down by Carlos Bellvis, Siqueira stepped up to place the penalty perfectly into the bottom corner.

And six minutes later the same three players were involved as a lovely backheel by Al-Arabi sent Siqueira flying down the left and his cross was swept home by Torje for his first Granada goal.

Celta's response though was almost immediate as three minutes later a slip by Borja Gomez allowed Aspas in behind the Granada defence and he took his time before cutting inside to fire low beyond Tono.

The visitors should have then levelled when Aspas' fine cross found Augusto Fernandez all alone in front of goal but the Argentina international did not time his header and the ball rebounded off his shoulder and over the bar.

Celta continued to press after the interval and just like last week against Barcelona, the hosts were grateful to Tono for a string of saves that protected their lead.

First to be denied by the former Racing Santander goalkeeper was Aspas as his looping header from Fernandez's cross was turned over. Park then saw another header deflect just wide off Gomez before Tono returned to being the hero as he blocked Aspas' effort with his feet from close range.

El-Arabi then had the chance to seal all three points on a rare foray forward from Granada in the second-half but his low effort was also repelled by the legs of Celta goalkeeper Javi Varas before Park twice had the opportunity to salvage a point in the final 10 minutes.

The South Korean, on-loan from Arsenal, could only direct his first effort over from a wicked delivery by Toni before forcing Tono into his finest save of the afternoon two minutes from time with a curling effort that the keeper just managed to tip round the post.