Athletic Bilbao's tulmutous season continued with a 4-0 demolition at the hands of Espanyol. Even worse for Athletic is the loss was at the San Mamés. Meanwhile, Real Sociedad stayed in the thick of the Europa League chase with their win over Zaragoza.
La Liga Sunday: Sociedad move into sixth, Espanyol thrash Athletic Bilbao
Real Sociedad took advantage of an early red card against Real Zaragoza and moved past Real Betis into a Europa League spot. Espanyol continued their resurgence with a 4-0 demolition of Athletic Bilbao.
Real Zaragoza 1-2 Real Sociedad
Sociedad slipped ahead of Real Betis (who play tomorrow) into 6th place with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Zaragoza. Antoine Griezmann put Sociedad ahead in the 11th minute, beating Roberto Gago from the edge of the box after a great run and assist from Carlos Vela. Things got worse for Zaragoza in the 22nd minute when 21-year-old Héctor, playing his first senior side match after being promoted from Zaragoza B, was shown his second yellow card and sent off.
Sociedad wasted little time taking advantage taking a two goal lead ten minutes after Héctor’s dismissal. Imanol Agirretxe out muscled Jose Fernandez and beat Gago to the top corner.
Zaragoza got a consolitation goal in stoppage time on a chipped penalty from Apono. Helder Postiga won the penalty after a foul by Markel Bergara.
Athletic Bilbao 0-4 Espanyol
Just when it looked like Atheltic Bilbao was getting their house in order, a couple of load bearing walls just collapsed. Despite dominating for most of the match, Athletic melted down late and were over run by Espanyol 4-0...at home!
Athletic castly outshooting Espnayol and controlling possession by a wide margin when out of nowhere in the 28th minute, Héctor Moreno beat Gorka Iraizoz with a header. Atheltic turned up the pressure but simply couldn’t find a way past Francisco Casilla and his defense.
Espanyol expanded their lead midway through the second half with two goal in two minutes Víctor Sánchez from Christian Stuani. Even when things went wrong for Espnayol, like a missed penalty by Joan Verd in the 75th minute, things went right as Verd followed up the rebound and scored anyway.
Espanyol are unbeaten in five matches and have moved from the relegation zone at the beginning of the year all the way up to 15th place, one spot ahead of Athletic. One has to wonder if Marcelo Bielsa's time is almost up in charge of Los Leones.
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