LaLiga: Valencia stun Athletic, nine-man Girona thrashed at home

Athletic Bilbao lost further ground on the early leaders in LaLiga after losing 2-0 to Valencia at the Estadio de Mestalla.

Despite being on top in the first half, a straight red card for Dani Vivian in the 61st minute for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity completely flipped the momentum in the match in Valencia's favour.

The sending off saw Aymeric Laporte make his second debut for Athletic, but he could not stop the oncoming onslaught from Valencia.

He initially deflected Largie Ramazani's strike behind for a corner, but Baptiste Santamaria managed to score a header from the resulting corner in the 73rd minute.

Santamaria then turned provider in the third minute of stoppage time as Hugo Duro secured all three points for the hosts, who bounced back from their 6-0 defeat to Barcelona in style.

Girona, meanwhile, remain at the bottom of the league after they were reduced to nine men in their 4-0 defeat at home to Levante.

In a match that saw five yellow cards in the first half, two of which went to Axel Witsel before the half-hour mark, resulting in his sending-off, Etta Eyong gave the visitors the lead two minutes before the break.

It was a nightmare start to the second half for Girona after Vitor Reis was shown a straight red card inside the opening minute for a reckless challenge on Carlos Alvarez, with the Levante forward also scoring from the resulting free-kick.

Ivan Romero then scored his third goal of the season in the 70th minute before Goduine Koyalipou wrapped up the scoring in the second minute of additional time with his first-ever LaLiga goal.

Elsewhere, Sevilla extended their unbeaten run to three games after they beat Alaves 2-1, thanks to goals from Ruben Vargas and Alexis Sanchez.

Vargas put the visitors in the lead after just 10 minutes, but Carlos Vicente equalised from the spot seven minutes later.

Sanchez then went on to score the winner in the 67th minute, becoming the third-oldest scorer for Sevilla in the competition since 2000 (36 years and 275 days).

Villarreal moved up to third in the league after coming from behind to beat 10-man Osasuna 2-1 at home.

Osasuna took a surprise lead soon following Valetin Rosier's 40th-minute red card as Ante Budimir converted from the penalty spot in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time.

However, second-half strikes from Georges Mikautadze and Pape Gueye kept Villarreal within five points of leaders Real Madrid.

Data Debrief: Santamaria joy at the Mestalla

Although Athletic will feel the red card took the match away from them, credit must go to Valencia for the way they pushed for the win.

Valencia created just 0.03 expected goals (xG) from one off-target shot in the first half, but finished the match with 1.99 xG from 13 attempts.

Santamaria became the first foreign player to score and provide an assist in a single LaLiga match for Valencia since Goncalo Guedes in December 2021 (two goals and one assist v Levante).