Athletic Club ended Atletico Madrid’s unbeaten start to the LaLiga season with a commanding 3-0 victory at San Mames, earning only their second home win in six matches.
The result was secured by a dramatic second-half collapse from the visitors, who conceded twice in quick succession before Oihan Sancet completed the scoring in the final minute of normal time.
Atletico began positively and Lee Kang-in produced the first major threat. The forward used his close control to weave through the Athletic defence before shooting from inside the penalty area, but his effort went narrowly wide of the left post.
Athletic soon created danger of their own. A pair of deflections around the edge of the Atletico box caused uncertainty in the visitors’ defence, and Oihan Sancet reacted quickest to a loose ball. His effort towards the near post, however, struck the side netting.
The visitors responded when Alex Baena received a pass in a promising position and attempted to find the top corner from distance. Unai Simon stayed alert and made a comfortable save.
Lee Kang-in continued to look lively, collecting a neat pass before deceiving one defender and shooting from the edge of the box. The attempt was well wide of the left post, though, and the teams went into half-time level.
Although Atletico may have felt unfortunate not to lead, their performance deteriorated sharply after the interval.
Athletic opened the scoring when Atletico failed to deal with a curling effort from Inaki Williams. Nico Williams arrived at close range to head the ball into the net.
The goal was checked by VAR for a possible offside or out-of-play incident during the build-up, but it was allowed to stand.
The Williams brothers then combined again almost immediately. Inaki collected a precise pass from Nico and sent a through-ball into the area, where Robert Navarro curled his finish into the far corner for his second goal of the season.
Athletic had won six of their previous nine home meetings with Atletico before this match, and the visitors appeared to be suffering the same familiar frustration. Their play became flat and lacked the energy shown during the opening 45 minutes.
Atletico had an opportunity to reduce the deficit in the 70th minute when Julian Alvarez found room to shoot low towards the bottom-right corner. Unai Simon reacted quickly, tipping the ball around the post.
There were some encouraging Athletic attacks down the left late on, but the third goal came from the opposite flank in the final minute of normal time. A ball over the top found Benat Gerenabarrena, whose delivery across the penalty area was missed by two Atletico players. Sancet arrived to tap in and complete a convincing victory.
The win lifted Athletic Club to eighth in the table, while Atletico’s defeat left them at risk of falling further behind title rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Flashscore named Robert Navarro the player of the match for Athletic Club. Full match statistics are available via Flashscore.