Athletic Bilbao crush Las Palmas 5-1 in La Liga

Bilbao (Spain) April 15 (IANS) Iker Muniain and Aritz Aduriz fired a brace each as Athletic Club Bilbao routed UD Las Palmas 5-1 to take a provisional hold on sixth place in the La Liga football championship here.

The hosts on Friday could have scored more goals against a visiting side that seemed lacking in competitive fire. Four of the six goals were scored in the first 18 minutes reports Efe.

A perfect header by San Jose put Athletic ahead in the seventh minute and Muniain doubled the lead just two minutes later on a direct free kick.

Pedro Bigas clawed one back for Las Palmas in the 12th minute with a header even more impressive than San Jose s but veteran goal-poacher Aduriz made it 3-1 for the home side in the 18th minute.

Athletic generated another half-dozen scoring opportunities before the end of the first half including an Aduriz goal that was deemed offside but the score remained the same.

The visitors had a couple of chances to narrow the gap early in the second half. Jonathan Vieira came close on a free kick and a Laporte tackle against Pedro Tana should have resulted in a penalty.

The hosts wrapped up the contest with a pair of goals just ahead of the hour mark. Muniain s volley from a distance in the 58th minute was followed less than a minute later by Aduriz who scored from close range after a Las Palmas giveaway.

Aduriz boosted his goal total to 22 14 of them in La Liga. Muniain s brace brought him to six goals for the season.

Athletic with 53 points from 32 matches sit one point ahead of seventh-placed Real Sociedad and two ahead of Eibar in the eighth spot though both of those rivals have a game in hand.

At 38 points Las Palmas remain in the 13th place.

--IANS
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