Alavés 2 - Athletic Bilbao 4

Alavés: Dutruel; Karmona (Geli 71'), Abelardo, Téllez, Llorens (Ilie 78'); Astudillo, Luis Helguera; Magno, Pablo, Iván Alonso; Rubén Navarro (Ibon Begoña 71'). 4-2-3-1.
Athletic: Aranzubia; Javi González (Tiko 70'), Aitor Ocio, Luis Prieto, Karanka, Del Horno; Alkiza; Etxeberría, Ezquerro (Arriaga 89'), Yeste (Oskar Vales 84'); Urzaiz. 5-1-3-1.

Team changes: Alavés: Magno, Iván Alonso for Mara, Ibon Begoña / Athletic: Aitor Ocio, Luis Prieto for Lacruz, Oskar Vales.

Goals:
0-1. 19. Yeste. Collected long pass on edge of area and hit low shot past Dutruel.
1-1. 26. Magno. Took pass from Rubén Navarro and rounded keeper to score.
2-1. 28. Astudillo. First time volley after ball headed up in area.
2-2. 57. Urzaiz. Steered header past keeper from Ezquerro chipped pass.
2-3. 75. Etxeberría. Ran on to loose ball on edge of area to shoot wide of keeper.
2-4. 87. Etxeberría. Received pass from right and lobbed keeper from close up.

Athletic Bilbao consolidated their sixth place with a 2-4 win over Basque neighbours Alavés, who stay down in the relegation spots as a result. After early pressure from the home side Athletic came back, and Dutruel saved well from Urzaiz and Etxeberría. Then in the twentieth minute Yeste gave the visitors the lead, taking advantage of a slack defence to score. Only ten minutes later though the Vitoria based side had turned the game around, Magno and then Astudillo scoring their side's first goals at home in more than two months, and Rubén Navarro missed a chance to put them further ahead before the break.

Urzaiz levelled the scores though in the second half with a well placed header, and a few minutes later disaster struck for the home side, Magno getting himself sent off for a silly challenge with Ilie warming up on the touchline ready to come on. Aranguren held his striker back, and Etxeberría helped himself to a couple of goals in the last quarter of an hour to keep his side on track for Europe. A bitter blow for the locals, and with Osasuna winning they are now three points away from safety.