Saturday 14 October 2017 20:51, UK
Sevilla suffered an eighth successive league defeat at Athletic Bilbao to see their hopes of turning the heat up on La Liga leaders Barcelona dashed.
With Barcelona facing unbeaten Atletico Madrid in the capital on Saturday evening, second-placed Sevilla could have cut the gap on the pacesetters to two points with victory at San Mames in the early kick-off.
However, Sevilla have not picked up a single point from their trips to Athletic since 2009 and, despite the home side languishing in mid-table and without a win in six competitive matches, it was the Basque outfit who emerged victorious.
That was thanks to Mikel Vesga's goal before half-time, with the midfielder coolly lofting his shot over Sergio Rico after Raul Garcia's attempted shot had deflected into his path just yards out.
Two goals in four second-half minutes earned Real Sociedad their first win in six games and a 2-0 victory over Alaves.
It took until the 77th minute for 20-year-old Mikel Oyarzabal to break the deadlock with his fourth goal in five games and Sociedad's advantage was soon doubled by Aritz Elustondo.
La Real won their opening four fixtures but then lost four in a row prior to a 4-4 draw with Real Betis before the international break.
Oyarzabal's left-footed opener came from a corner the home side failed to initially deal with and Elustondo soon got in on the act with an effort that looped over Fernando Pacheco via a Ruben Duarte deflection.
