Malaga, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Iker Muniain's tally five minutes from time was enough to propel Athletic Bilbao to a 2-1 victory over Malaga on Monday at the Estadio La Rosaleda.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 38th minute of play when Marcos Angeleri headed the ball across the penalty area where Juanmi was there to nod it past Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz into the top right corner.
Malaga held the lead until the 67th minute when Bilbao found an equalizer through Mikel San Jose, who got on the end of a well-placed corner kick from Markel Susaeta and smashed it past Malaga goalkeeper Wilfredo Caballero.
With seven minutes to play, Malaga's chances of coming out on top took a hit when Francisco Portillo was shown a straight red card. Bilbao was able to take advantage of the extra man as Muniain bagged the winner with a close- range strike just two minute later.
The result sees Bilbao improve to 26 points from 14 matches, while Malaga remains in 14th place on 13 points.
