Jota Silva's three goals in nine minutes settled the match early

Olympiakos Piraeus beat Kalamata at the Karaiskakis Stadium, and Jota Silva scored three of the goals in a spell that decided it.

Jota Silva scored three goals in nine minutes, the first at 37 and the third a minute into the second half, and that burst is what sets this game apart from an ordinary home win. Olympiakos Piraeus were two up at the break and three up soon after it, so the remaining forty minutes were played with the result already settled.

The ball was the first thing that moved in Olympiakos Piraeus's favour. They had 74% possession, well above the 57% they average at home this season, which is a clear departure for them. Their shot count was close to their usual 17.8, so this was not a flood of chances. What changed was the quality of them: ten of their shots were on target, and the goals followed.

Kalamata had just 26% of the ball, down on the 40.4% they normally hold away from home. They managed three shots, where their away average is 12.8, and only two of those were on target. The league average is 11.9 shots per side, so Kalamata fell well below both their own pattern and the wider norm rather than having a poor day within a familiar range.

The goals conceded tell the same story from the other end. Kalamata let in five away from home, where they usually concede 1.4, and they scored none, against an away average of 2.2. Their last six away matches had brought four wins, one draw and one defeat, so a result of this size ran hard against what they had been doing on their travels.

Olympiakos Piraeus arrived in form too. They had won all six of their most recent matches, and they now sit third in the table with 16 points from seven games. Kalamata are seventh with 10 points from the same number of matches, which makes this a result that widens a gap already visible on paper.

Silva's hat-trick came from three different routes. Joel Roca set up the first, Gustavo Sá the second and Nayair Tiknizyan the third, and Silva was rated 9.5 for his work, the highest mark recorded in the match. Marius Mouandilmadji added a goal at 74 and Leon Bailey closed the scoring at 85, so the home side finished with a goal in every phase of the game.

Across the division, teams average 2.7 goals per match, and this game produced nearly twice that. Olympiakos Piraeus scored more in one afternoon than they usually manage in a whole home match, which is the finding that stays with the result.

Player of the matchJota Silva3 goals9.5

M. Mouandilmadji1 goal7.2

L. Bailey1 goal7.2

Z. Smajlović90 minutes6.9