Mirassol's red card at 24 minutes, and Corinthians made it count

Corinthians beat Mirassol 2-0 after the visitors lost Bruno Santos early on, and the chance count shows how much that mattered.

Bruno Santos was sent off for Mirassol on 24 minutes, and from then on they were playing with ten men. Corinthians made the most of it at the Neo Quimica Arena, winning 2-0 with goals just before the hour and again in the 80th minute. The sending off is the first thing to understand about this game, because every figure below reads differently once you know Mirassol were a man short for most of it.

Corinthians had 60 per cent of the ball, and that share alone is not unusual for them. Across their last twelve home matches they averaged 55.1 per cent, so this was only slightly above their norm. The real change came in the shooting: 33 attempts, more than double their home average of 14, with 7 of them on target.

The quality of those chances is where the story sharpens. Expected goals, a measure of how good each chance was, where a tap-in counts for far more than a effort from distance, added up to 2.33 for Corinthians. Their home average is 1.01, and across the league a side typically manages 1.39, so this was a plainly better night in front of goal than usual.

Mirassol's side of the figures is thin. They managed one shot, which was from outside the box and missed the target, so their chances added up to 0.03 expected goals against an away average of 1.27. Their goalkeeper made five saves, and those five saves plus the two goals account for all seven of Corinthians' shots on target.

Bidu opened the scoring on 58 minutes, finishing with an assist from Matheuzinho. Kaio César made it two on 80 minutes, with Garro providing the final pass, and he was the stand-out Corinthians player with a rating of 8.5. Two goals is a modest return for that many chances, a reminder that finishing is never guaranteed, even when the chances keep coming.

At the other end, Corinthians gave up very little. Mirassol's chances were worth 0.03 expected goals, against the 1.12 Corinthians usually concede at home, so the visitors had almost nothing to work with once the numbers are weighed. Being a man down removed much of their attacking threat and left them with few routes to a goal.

Corinthians sit 18th in the table with 33 points from 32 matches, while Mirassol are 16th on 37 points from the same number of games.

Player of the matchKaio César1 goal8.5

Matheuzinho1 assist7.7

Fabrizio Angileri4 chances created7.6

Matheus Bidu1 goal7.5