Union Saint-Gilloise crushes Hapoel Be'er Sheva 4-0 with a demolishing second half in the Europa League

Union Saint-Gilloise settled this one with a total blackout from Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the second half: 4-0 at the Merkur Spiel-Arena, with three goals between the 59th and 80th minutes that turned a tight contest into a comfortable rout. Through halftime the story had been different: just a penalty goal separated the two sides, and the scoreline undersold everything the Belgian club had created.

The first half was a monologue with a tight finish. Union Saint-Gilloise hovered around the opposing box again and again (a shot from Igor Zlatanovic that struck the right post in the 37th minute was the only real scare the other way) and only found reward in stoppage time. In the 45th minute, Itay Rotman brought down Raul Florucz for a penalty, and Florucz himself converted it with his left foot, low and tight to the left post, for the 1-0 scoreline at the break.

The second half, sealed in four blows

What had been relentless pressure without reward in the first half turned into goals in the second. In the 59th minute, Guilherme Smith finished with his right foot from inside the box, set up by Relebohile Mofokeng, for the 2-0. The match was already all but decided, but the home side did not ease off: in the 76th minute, Dylan Aquino extended the lead with a shot from the center of the box, and four minutes later, in the 80th minute, Guilherme Smith struck again for his second goal of the night, this time assisted by Denzel De Roeve, to set the final 4-0.

Hapoel Be'er Sheva, who had their only clear chances early on through Javon East and Zlatanovic, faded as the minutes wore on. The introductions of Mohammad Kna'an, Adrián Ugarriza and Matan Baltaxa were not enough to reorganize a team that finished without a single dangerous shot down the stretch.

The numbers behind the rout

The stats confirm what played out on the field: total attacking dominance from Union Saint-Gilloise, even with possession split almost evenly.

With 29 shots to 6, the gap in attacking volume is hard to miss. According to our xG estimate, calculated after the fact based on shot locations, Union Saint-Gilloise generated 2.47 expected goals to Hapoel's 1.26, a gap that still falls short of the four actual goals the Belgian side ended up scoring.

Beforehand, our model gave Union Saint-Gilloise a 61% chance of winning, 25% for a draw and just 14% for an away win, projecting 1.87 expected goals for the home side and 0.80 for Hapoel. The final result ended up being even more lopsided than that projection suggested, especially since the 1-0 scoreline at halftime had pointed toward a tighter match than it ultimately turned out to be.

What the match means in the standings

In this season's Europa League, Union Saint-Gilloise came into this match with a record of two wins and a draw in three matches, while Hapoel Be'er Sheva had been piling up losses, with just one draw and two defeats in the same number of outings. The points gap between the two sides before this match stood at 6, and tonight's rout only widens the distance between the two clubs in the league phase of the competition.