Athletic Bilbao 1 - Valencia 0

Athletic: Aranzubia; Javi González (Murillo 92'), Aitor Ocio, Karanka, Luis Prieto, Larrazábal; Joseba Etxeberría, Alkiza, Tiko (Felipe 75'), Ezquerro; Urzaiz. 5-4-1.
Valencia: Cañizares; Reveillère, Ayala, Marchena, Fabio Aurelio; Baraja, De los Santos (Rufete 70'); Angulo (Carew 61'), Aimar, Vicente (Kily González 79'); Mista. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Athletic: Javi González, Luis Prieto for César, Oskar Vales / Valencia: Fabio Aurelio for Carboni.

Goals:
1-0. 40. Etxeberría. Ran on to Ezquerro through ball to chip over Cañizares.

Valencia lose ground on the leaders after a 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao, and are now five points adrift of third placed Deportivo having only picked up one point in their last three games. With one eye on next Wednesday's Champions League match against Arsenal, Rafa Benítez put out a weakened side, with six changes from his first choice line up. Even so they had the chance to take the lead when referee Mejuto González awarded them a penalty after Karanka fouled Baraja late in the first half, but Aranzubia dived to turn Fabio Aurelio's spot kick away for a corner. In the following play the Basques broke away, and Ezquerro passed the ball on for Etxeberría to shoot over Cañizares for the only goal of the match.

Tiko hit the bar with a long free kick after the break, and the visitors were left with ten men after Mista picked up one yellow card for taking a free kick before the referee had blown his whistle and a second one immediately afterwards for protesting the decision. Benítez brought on Carew and then Rufete, and Aranzubia did well to tip Baraja's header over the bar. Athletic should have scored soon afterwards though, but Etxeberría waited too long allowing Ayala to block his shot.

Valencia suffered another blow when their third substitute Kily González was stretchered off with a knee injury after a hard tackle by Karanka within two minutes of coming on, and they had to play the last ten minutes with nine players. Heynckes was not taking any chances though, and ran down the clock with substitutions which although unpopular with the crowd, at least conserved the much needed three points. They move up the table to tenth, but with several teams bunched together in midtable, they are still only four points off the relegation spots. Every point counts at this stage in the competition.