Las Palmas storm to brink of safety

Early injury setback for Espanyol

With just 15 minutes on the clock, Abraham was forced off injured. Constantin Galca therefore had to use up one of his substitutions, with the RCD Espanyol coach opting to give Joan Jordan the nod off the bench and to shake things up tactically.

Shifting dominance

UD Las Palmas dictated possession initially and had the first attempt of the game. Jonathan Viera tried his luck, but Giedrius Arlauskis pushed his potshot away for a corner. Espanyol subsequently gathered themselves and created some decent chances. Marco Asensio had the clearest of these when Burgui played him in, but the Spain Under-21 international only succeeded in sending the ball over the bar at full stretch.

El Zhar opens the scoring

Just when Espanyol were enjoying their best spell, they were hit by a sucker punch, in first-half stoppage time to boot. Viera spread the ball out to Nabil El Zhar, who shot across goal and into the bottom corner. Quique Setien's side therefore took a 1-0 lead into the interval, while Galca's charges trudged off ruing their luck.

Viera gives hosts a cushion

Espanyol came back out at the Estadio Gran Canaria confident that they could get back on level terms. That confidence did not last long, however. In the 49th minute, Willian Jose's strike proved too hot for Arlauskis to hold on to, and there was Viera to smash home on the follow-up.

A lesson in ruthlessness

With Espanyol's heads dropping, the home team added to their tally in the 56th minute. After Viera (who else?) floated a cross into the box following a free-kick on the left, Pedro Bigas glanced home a textbook header to make it 3-0. It was left to Wakaso to round off the romp and he did so with a real beauty, catching a volley absolutely perfectly to rocket the ball into the top corner. The victory means that, barring an extraordinary turn of events, the Canary Islanders will be back in the Liga BBVA next season.