Athletic Bilbao 2 - Real Madrid 1

Athletic: Aranzubia; Iraola, Murillo, Luis Prieto, Del Horno; Gurpegui, Orbaiz; Etxeberría (Casas 94'), Yeste (Arriaga 84'), Ezquerro (Jonan García 69'); Urzaiz. 4-2-3-1.
Madrid: Casillas; Salgado, Iván Helguera, Samuel, Raúl Bravo (Roberto Carlos 60'); Beckham (Morientes 60'), Celades; Figo, Raúl, Guti; Ronaldo. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Athletic: Iraola, Murillo, Luis Prieto, Del Horno, Etxeberría for Javi González, Karanka, Casas, Tiko, Arriaga / Madrid: Salgado, Samuel, Guti for Mejía, Roberto Carlos, Solari.

Goals:
1-0. 11. Urzaiz. Collected high Del Horno cross and fired shot wide of Casillas.
2-0. 45. Ezquerro. Got above Raúl Bravo to head Del Horno cross into net.
2-1. 51. Raúl. Ran on to Guti back-heel pass and struck right foot shot past keeper.

Mariano García Remón suffered his first defeat as manager of Real Madrid when his team were beaten 2-1 by Athletic Bilbao. The new coach was missing several players through injury, including Solari, Owen and Zidane, and decided to rest Roberto Carlos. It was not the best of decisions as it turned out though, as his replacement Raúl Bravo was at fault for both of the home side's goals.

The first goal came early on when Bravo misread a long cross from Del Horno, allowing it to fall to Urzaiz for him to beat Casillas. The visiting keeper had already been in action before that when he saved at the feet of Gurpegui, and Athletic could have added to the scoreline before Del Horno found Ezquerro with another cross on the stroke of half time for him to rise above Bravo and head into the corner of the net.

Madrid had hardly troubled Aranzubia throughout the first half, but they got back in the game six minutes after the restart when Raúl picked up a back-heel pass and ran on to curl a long shot past the keeper with his right foot. Curiously it was the striker's first goal in the league since he scored in the San Mamés stadium around six months ago.

From then on though it was all Bilbao, with Casillas blocking a shot from Yeste and tipping a dangerous Orbaiz free kick round the post. Urziaz and Jonan García both shot well wide near the end, but they had done enough to wrap up their first league win of the season, and they move out of the relegation zone as a result.