Getafe miss out on Euro berth

Getafe's faint hopes of European football melted away as they finished with a 2-0 defeat away to Granada.

Getafe's faint hopes of European football melted away as they finished with defeat away to Granada and saw other results go against them regardless. Victory for Getafe coupled with a defeat for Sevilla would have seen them snatch ninth place and the final Europa League berth - at least subject to appeals lodged by Malaga and Rayo Vallecano against their respective continental bans. But that convoluted route to Europe was comprehensively bypassed as Granada celebrated their survival with a final home win. What began as an end-to-end contest could have gone either way, but goals in either half from Nolito and Youssef El Arabi settled it in Granada's favour. Getafe might have given themselves hope with some better finishing, but Alvaro Vazquez, Pablo Sarabia and Diego Castro missed good early chances to test Roberto Fernandez, leaving Miguel Moya as the busier goalkeeper as he pushed clear a 10th-minute shot from El Arabi. With Sevilla losing at this point, Getafe had their chance but things began to turn against them when Granada took the lead in the 29th minute with a close-range finish from Nolito, and then news filtered through of an Alvaro Negredo brace which had turned things around in Seville. Getafe were not doing enough to change their own destiny, with Juan Valera blazing over when well placed before Pedro Leon cleared the crossbar wit ha free-kick. As the second half began Granada were continuing to look the more dangerous and duly doubled their lead soon after the hour mark when El Arabi turned the ball home from Allan Nyom's pass. Yacine Brahimi almost added a third but Moya got a strong hand to the shot With Getafe sensing it was not to be their day, Granada had further chances to score but El Arabi's left-footed drive was held by Mota and Manuel Lucena's header went over. The result sees Getafe settle for 10th place while Granada, having secured their top-flight status despite losing last week, finish in 15th.