Athletic Bilbao 2 - Alavés 0

Athletic: Aranzubia; Javi González, Lacruz, Karanka, Del Horno (Larrazábal 70'); Gurpegui, Alkiza (Oscar Vales 90'); Joseba Etxeberría, Ezquerro (Orbaiz 70'), Arriaga; Urzaiz. 4-2-3-1.
Alavés: Dutruel; Edu Alonso, Karmona, Abelardo, Geli; Pablo (Magno 46'), Turiel (Luis Helguera 70'); Jordi Cruyff, Ilie, Ibon Begoña; Rubén Navarro (Iván Alonso 79'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Athletic: Del Horno, Ezquerro, Arriaga for Larrazábal, Orbaiz, Yeste / Alavés: Edu Alonso for Llorens.

Goals:
1-0. 15. Urzaiz. Headed home cross by Etxeberría from right wing.
2-0. 73. Etxeberría. Near post header following Orbaiz corner.

Athletic Bilbao won their Basque derby against Alavés by 2-0 to move away from the danger zone. After three defeats in a row, Jupp Heynckes' side were only a point above the bottom three, and the manager decided to keep his young midfielder Gurpegui in the side even though he is facing a possible ban after testing positive for Nandrolone. Alavés were above their neighbours in the table after a good recent run, although they were not taking any chances having lost all of their previous nine visits to the San Mamés stadium, and Mané kept to the side which beat Atlético the week before, only replacing the suspended Llorens with Edu Alonso.

Bilbao got off to a lively start, with Ezquerro and Etxeberría failing to get through against a packed defence. However Urzaiz got on the end of Etxeberría's cross on the quarter hour mark to head powerfully past Dutruel for the first goal. The visitors were not putting up much of a challenge, with ilie closely tracked by the defence, and only a long header by Abelardo got anywhere near Aranzubia's goal. Mané brought on Magno for Pablo at half time, and for a short while there was an improvement. However Ezquerro should have scored when he hesitated too long in front of Dutruel, and with twenty minutes to go Etxeberría found a gap in the defence to head home an Orbaiz corner for Athletic's second. The result was a welcome relief for Heynckes, not least because, for the first time in thirty-five league games, his side had kept a clean sheet. Bilbao move two points ahead of their opponents up to thirteenth place.