Real Betis 2 - 1 Athletic Bilbao - Nelson sinks Bilbao

Right-back Nelson hammered an injury-time winner to give Real Betis a 2-1 victory over 10-man Athletic Bilbao.

Nelson, playing his first Primera Division match of the season and recently back from compassionate leave after his father died, drove the ball home from the edge of the box to seal the points for Betis, who moved up to 12th.

Ruben Castro had put Betis ahead in the 10th minute before Athletic levelled 13 minutes later through Javi Martinez, who was then harshly sent off in the 64th minute.

If the sending-off was tough on the Copa del Rey finalists, who would have moved into the Champions League places with a win, the scoreline was not as Betis were the better side throughout.

They took the lead early on when, after a neat passing move, the ball broke to Castro somewhat fortuitously on the left of the area and he produced a beautiful first-time curling strike into the far corner from an acute angle.

Athletic levelled when Markel Susaeta's outswinging corner found Martinez unmarked in the box and he stooped to head his side level.

Jefferson Montero went agonisingly close to putting Betis ahead again as the half drew to a close when he poked the ball against the bar after a great run and one-two with Jorge Molina.

And at the other end, moments before the whistle went, Inigo Perez's low shot through a crowd of players was well stopped by Fabricio.

Three minutes into the second half, Betis had the ball in the net again.

Etxebarria Benat played a lovely ball through to Castro, whose shot was deflected onto the bar by Gorka Iraizoz. The ball rebounded to Salva Sevilla who headed the ball home, but he was correctly adjudged to be in an offside position.

After 56 minutes, Susaeta produced a lovely chip into the box for Fernando Llorente, whose header was going in before Fabricio pushed it wide.

Sevilla headed wide after 62 minutes, but Betis were given a boost two minutes later when Martinez was sent off.

There seemed to be little in it when the defender tangled with Jonathan Pereira, but it was deemed enough for his second innocuous booking of the evening.

That left Betis in control and, though they dominated attacking possession, the closest they came was from Benat's deflected shot in the 84th minute, which was sneaking in at the near post before Iraizoz pushed it wide.

That was until stoppage time when Benat's corner was cleared only as far as Nelson, who hammered the bobbling ball past Iraizoz.