Barcelona (AFP) - Inaki Williams scored twice as Athletic Bilbao beat Real Sociedad 2-0 in La Liga's Basque derby on Saturday.
La Real had the chance to tighten their grip on fourth place after Villarreal stumbled to a 2-1 home defeat by relegation-battling Real Valladolid, but fell short at a fiery San Mames.
Real Betis beat struggling Espanyol 3-1 to move fifth, three points behind Imanol Alguacil's side.
Real Sociedad goalkeeper Alex Remiro made good saves from brothers Nico and Inaki Williams, before the latter broke the deadlock when he stabbed home from a corner.
La Real complained Inaki had handled the ball after taking a swing at it and mishitting it, but VAR showed he did not.
Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon made a fine double save to deny Ander Barrenetxea and then Take Kubo, to keep his team ahead.
Inaki smashed home his second goal after 70 minutes, driving into the box and rifling past Remiro from a tight angle.
Alexander Sorloth should have pulled one back for the visitors but inexplicably slammed over the bar from point-blank range.
Barrenetxea followed suit with another huge miss when completely unmarked in the box late on, leaving Athletic fans laughing in the stands at their luck.
Los Leones celebrated with their fans at the end, the victory making amends for their recent Copa del Rey semi-final exit against Osasuna.
Athletic stayed seventh but ensured the race for European football grew tighter.
"It was important to win at home, after the cup day," said their coach Ernesto Valverde.
"It's a derby, we know the pressure there is in these type of games, it was a very tense match."
Betis rise
Real Sociedad's defeat meant Quique Setien's Villarreal's surprise loss against Real Valladolid was not as costly as it might have been, although they were leapfrogged by Betis.
Selim Amallah struck for the visitors in the second minute and Jawad El Yamiq doubled their lead after Villarreal's Samu Chukwueze had a goal disallowed for offside.
Etienne Capoue pulled one back for the Yellow Submarine but it was Valladolid, provisionally 14th and five points above the relegation zone, who came closer to scoring in the final stages.
Villarreal goalkeeper Pepe Reina made some fine saves to keep Valladolid at bay, after their new coach Paulo Pezzolano was sent off for complaining about Capoue's strike.
The hosts, who beat champions Real Madrid 3-2 last weekend in a thriller at the Santiago Bernabeu, felt they deserved more.
"The result does not show what happened in the 90 minutes, I think Villarreal were superior in every aspect to Valladolid," said Villarreal's Dani Parejo.
"We leave sad and disappointed with the result, but we feel football has been unjust to us."
Betis' comfortable win over Espanyol, 19th, helped them overtake Villarreal by a point to go fifth.
Ayoze Perez broke the deadlock and then set up defender Juan Miranda for the second.
Cesar Montes pulled one back for Espanyol, who have lost six consecutive games in the top flight, with a spectacular overhead kick.
William Carvalho restored Betis' advantage, with Espanyol's Martin Braithwaite striking late on but seeing the goal disallowed for offside.
Espanyol are now three points from safety, having played 29 games, one more than the four sides above them.
