Celta Vigo 1-2 Athletic Bilbao: Los Leones roar back into the top 10
Athletic Club Bilbao seem to have finally found the form they’ve been missing throughout the entire season but face a Celta Vigo side who are firing at will and waiting for the goals to start pouring in again.
Celta Vigo hadn’t beaten Athletic Bilbao in Balaidos since March 2003 and the Basque side were determined to continue that streak.
Celta controlled possession through the first 15 minutes of the match but it would all quickly come falling apart as Augusto Fernandez brought down Iker Muniain in the penalty area, giving Athletic a penalty, which Aritz Aduriz converted to put his side up early.
Athletic could smell blood in the water as Aduriz went back several minutes later forcing Sergio to make a tremendous save and De Marcos forcing the issue a bit later on.
Celta’s Larrivey would try a header, but it Athletic held the momentum and scored their second goal of the evening in the 31st minute, a brilliant effort by the in-form Mikel San Jose to score Aduriz’s rebound.
Celta would attempt to recover and regain their composure, but were unable to put Athletic in danger going into the break.
Athletic came roaring out the gates to start the second half and tested Celta early, but the Galicians would soon turn the game in their favour with Larrivey scoring in the 63rd minute to get back in the game.
However, Celta were unable to overcome a motivated Athletic side and despite San Jose getting sent off with two yellow cards in the 85th minute, Ernesto Valverde’s side came away with three points and climbed back into the top half of the table for the first time this season.
