Athletic Bilbao beat Real Betis with Williams double, Eibar stay sixth

Real Betis' miserable home form continued as two goals
from Inaki Williams helped Athletic Bilbao to a 3-1
victory at the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
Betis have only won once at home so far this season
and they were behind inside eight minutes.
Williams back-heeled in a second just before half-time
and Athletic had a host of other chances before Betis
pulled one back through Ruben Castro's penalty.
The hosts were extremely fortunate to be in the game,
but Athletic secured a deserved win in the 87th minute
through the impressive Raul Garcia.
Eibar stay sixth after an own goal by Diego Llorente
gave them a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano.
Although the goal that settled the game was a fortuitous
one, the Basques were comfortably the better team over
the 90 minutes in Ipurua, creating more chances and
playing with more purpose than Paco Jemez's side, who
remain 14th in the league table.
Keko was allowed to race down the right wing
unchallenged and cross towards Baston in the area, but
Llorente got there first, sliding across the floor and
inadvertently sending the ball into his own net.
Felipe Caicedo struck right at the end to salvage a point
for 10-man Espanyol and deny Granada a first win since
August.
The Ecuadorian bundled the ball home from close range
in the fourth minute of added time to cancel out Jean-
Sylvain Babin's header just before the hour mark, and
earn a 1-1 draw.
The hosts' chances of getting anything from the game
suffered a setback when defender Rober was sent off
with 20 minutes remaining, but Sergio Gonzalez's side
did not allow their heads to drop and kept putting
pressure on Granada.
Alen Halilovic again demonstrated his importance to
Sporting Gijon by scoring the only goal in their 1-0 win
at home to Malaga.
The Croatia international's low drive after 27 minutes
takes the Asturians up to 12th in the Primera Division
with 12 points, while Malaga slip down to one place
above the relegation zone.
The acquisition of Halilovic on a season's loan from
Barcelona is proving to be a coup for Sporting.
He ghosted into the area to curl Sergio Alvarez's cutback
into the bottom corner, but Malaga should also have
scored when Juan Carlos missed a simple opportunity
to beat Ivan Cuellar.