Yet another 1-1 in Bilbao, where the home side and Oviedo shared the points. With only Roberto Rios out through injury, Luis Fernández chose to leave Larrazábal in the stands, a bit of a waste really as the club had taken the effort to successfully appeal his second yellow card from last week's match in Barcelona. Urzaiz, who has scored seven times in eight matches against the Asturian side, started the match up front in a 4-2-3-1 formation similar to the one Clemente used with Real Sociedad. Luis Aragonés did have several key players missing, and with Onopko, Nadj, Claessen, Corbo and Iván Ania unavailable for one reason or another, he was forced to include an injured Frederick Danjou in defence. Oviedo have had a good record in Bilbao in recent years, with the home side only winning five of the last eleven matches, and in particular Oviedo winning 3-5 last season. They went in front this time as well, Dubovsky finishing off a move started by Dely Valdés and Pompei, his first goal of the season. That was after thirteen minutes, but seven minutes later Athletic came back through Ezquerro after Etxeberria had made a dazzling run down the wing. That was about all, although Losada shot over the bar in the second half when he should have scored, and Esteban made a spectacular save from Julen Guerrero's free kick. Both teams are level on 12 points in midtable.

Numancia won what was billed as the relegation battle against Sevilla by 2-0, leaving the Andalucian side alone at the bottom of the table on eight points. In fact Numancia are currently doing alright, holding fourteenth place in the league level with Real Madrid, and with an unbeaten home record in Los Pajaritos stadium with two wins and three draws to date. Goiko played with three forwards, Barbu, Ojeda and Rubén Navarro, and was missing Jaume, Iñaki and Raúl through injury. Marcos Alonso was without the injured Hibic in defence, replacing him with Marchena, and Uruguayan Podestá, who was substituted by Angel, who played last season in Numancia and who was booed throughout for match. The first goal came in the 32nd minute, Rubén Navarro firing in a powerful shot after receiving a pass from Rumanian Barbu. Sevilla's midfield star Tsartas was heavily marked, and Marcos brought on Jesuli early in the second half, but the youngster only lasted fourteen minutes before being sent off with a direct red card for a heavy tackle. Uruguayans Olivera and Zalayeta came on for Sevilla but they still didn't manage a shot at goal, and four minutes from time Caco Moran sentenced the match heading in Ojeda's headed pass. The Sevillian players ended up arguing amongst themselves, and they have to pick themselves up next week against Bilbao if they don't want to be left behind. On the positive side, this is one of the closest leagues for years, and only fourteen points separate the leaders from the bottom club.