Athletic Bilbao 4 - Espanyol 1

Athletic: Lafuente; Javi González, Murillo, Lacruz, Larrazábal; Gurpegui, Alkiza; Joseba Etxeberría (Tiko 92'), Ezquerro (Julen Guerrero 85'), Arriaga (Yeste 62'); Urzaiz. 4-2-3-1.
Espanyol: Argensó; Navas, Domoraud, Amaya, David García; Morales, Alex Fernández (Luque 65'); Maxi (Fredson 76'), De la Peña (Milosevic 65'), Roger; Tamudo. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Athletic: No change / Espanyol: Domoraud, Amaya, Alex Fernández for Soldevilla, Jarque, Milosevic.

Goals:
0-1. 14. Maxi. Got on the end of De la Peña free kick to turn ball past Lafuente.
1-1. 19. Larrazábal (penalty). After Etxeberría tripped by Amaya on right of area.
2-1. 49. Gurpegui. Headed past Argensó from right sided corner.
3-1. 72. Urzaiz. Poked ball in from close range after low Yeste cross.
4-1. 80. Etxeberría. Collected ball on right of area and ran on to hit low shot.

Athletic Bilbao were the only team to score more than two on one of the lowest goal-scoring weekends on record in the first division. Jupp Heyckes side came from behind to beat struggling Espanyol 4-1, leaving the Catalans down in last position in the table after a fourth defeat in a row. It was the visitors though who took the lead for the third time in a row in the San Mamés stadium, Maxi turning De la Peña's free kick past Lafuente with a quarter of an hour gone. Five minutes later though Amaya, who had been given a rare start by manager Ramón Moya, lost the ball to Etxeberría and tripped up the winger inside the area in his attempt to win it back. Despite the protest of the Espanyol players, referee Puentes Leira had no doubts and awarded a penalty which dead-ball specialist Larrazábal converted.

Moya was in fact still complaining about the penalty as the first half came to a close, and after the linesman reported him to the referee for bad language the manager was shown the red card. Four minutes after the restart, Athletic went in front, Gurpegui getting on the end of Etxeberría's corner to head past Argensó. Midway through the half Espanyol were left with ten men after Roger picked up a second booking, and the game was virtually over. Substitute Yeste had a chance to make it three shortly before Urzaiz connected with the young left winger's cross to do just that, and with ten minutes to go Etxeberría cut in from the other flank to hit a shot with his "wooden" left foot into the corner of the net. After their disastrous start to the season, Bilbao have now picked up ten points from their last four games, and they rise up the table to eleventh place.