Athletic Bilbao 4 - Rayo Vallecano 2

Bilbao: Lafuente; Larrainzar, Lacruz, Alkorta, Larrazábal; Urrutia, Felipe; Joseba Etxeberria, Julen Guerrero, Javi González (Yeste 75'); Urzaiz (Tiko 90'). 4-2-3-1.
Rayo: Lopetegui; Alcázar, De Quintana, Ballesteros, Mingo (Mauro 46'); Iván Iglesias (Glaucio 67'), Pablo Sanz (Bolic 46'), Poschner, Michel; Quevedo; Bolo. 4-4-1-1.

Team changes: Bilbao: Larrazábal for Del Horno / Rayo: Poschner for Bolic.

Goals:
1-0. 05. Urzaiz. After cross from right by Etxeberria not cleared.
2-0. 10. De Quintana (own goal). Touched cross from Javi González past keeper.
2-1. 14. Quevedo. Headed cross from Michel past keeper coming from behind.
3-1. 33. Julen Guerrero. After Urzaiz laid back Larrainzar's pass.
3-2. 64. Quevedo. A yard out after De Quintana headed across Poschner free kick.
4-2. 87. Julen Guerrero. Beat keeper after Etxeberria played ball back from right.

With a Julen Guerrero on his best form of the season to date, Bilbao got their second home win in a row to move away from the bottom spots of the first division. Guerrero got his first two goals of the season and captained his side to victory against a Rayo Vallecano who were showing signs of tiredness after their UEFA cup cold war of attrition in Moscow on Thursday night. Rayo's manager Juande Ramos lined up with eight of that side in the starting eleven, with Iván Iglesias back on the right side of midfield and Lopetegui returning in goal. Athletic were unchanged from the team that started against Espanyol last week, except for Larrazábal who was returning after missing the last match through injury.

Within ten minutes of the kick off Bilbao were two up, with Urzaiz getting his first goal in seven weeks and then De Quintana deflecting a Javi González cross past his own keeper from a wide angle on the left. Shortly afterwards though Quevedo pulled one back for the visitors from a powerful header after Michel had laid the ball across. The match was hard fought, and Ballesteros had to leave the field twice to be attended to in a period of ten minutes after receiving Urzaiz's elbow in his face on both occasions, the Basque striker picking up a fifth yellow card which means he will miss next week's derby match at Alavés. He also went close with two headers before laying on his team's third for Julen Guerrero.

At half time Ramos made a double change, adding an extra striker Bolic for his left back Mingo, and replacing Sanz with Mauro. The changes worked and Rayo had their best period of the match, with Bolo and Poschner having cracks at goal before Quevedo got his second of the night from close range. With a bit more luck they could even have drawn level, with Bolo heading against the crossbar and referee Ansuategui Roca turning a blind eye to a possible penalty by Alkorta on Bolic, before Julen took a pass from Etxeberria three minutes from the end to sentence the match. All four Athletic goals were accompanied by gestures of support for defender Rafael Alkorta, who was playing despite the death of his father a day or two earlier. Bilbao go up to fourteenth in the table, level with three other teams, Málaga, Valladolid and Villarreal, on 15 points. Rayo slip a place to fifth, but are still enjoying another great season for them.