Granada 2-0 Cordoba

Granada ensured they remain in the fight to avoid relegation by beating Cordoba 2-0 in an Andalusian derby at El Nuevo Los Carmenes stadium, with the visitors finishing the game with nine men.Inigo Lopez was given his marching orders on the half hour and Diego Mainz capitalised by giving Granada the lead on the stroke of half-time.Youssef El Arabi scored from the spot midway through the second half to finish off the game as a contest, which became even more one-sided when Fede Cartabia talked himself into a red card later on with 12 minutes to go.This was Granada's second victory in a row under new coach Jose Ramon Sandoval, who in just two games in charge has pulled off back-to-back wins, something his predecessors Abel Resino and Joaquin Caparros failed to do this season.Granada stay in the relegation zone but move on to 31 points and are now level with Eibar, who lost 2-0 to Espanyol on Friday and occupy the last position outside the bottom three.Cordoba were relegated to the Segunda Division A last week, and despite the insistence from their players they would give everything in their remaining matches, they were the second best team on the pitch for the 90 minutes, leaking goalscoring chances even when they had 11 men on the pitch.The first opportunity fell to El Arabi following an early corner but he failed to hit the target, while goalkeeper Juan Carlos had to save efforts from Mainz and Piti.Granada began to dominate the play even more once Lopez was shown a second yellow card for a foul on El Arabi, with Jean-Sylvain Babin hitting the post and Ruben Perez going close before Mainz broke the deadlock just before the break.Piti, a former charge of Sandoval with Rayo Vallecano, swung in a free-kick and Mainz evaded his marker Deivid to head in a third goal in six games.Granada continued to call the shots in the second half and El Arabi doubled their lead from the spot after Ruben Rochina was fouled by Aleksandar Pantic, adding to the two goals he scored against Getafe last week.Cordoba have not won a single game in the second half of the season and Cartabia's display of petulance summed up their disastrous campaign.The Argentinian was awarded a foul but demanded a yellow card for his opponent and instead received two bookings himself in a matter of seconds for shouting repeatedly at referee Fernando Teixiera Vitienes. ends