Sancet treble boosts Bilbao top four bid, Antony nets for Betis

The Basque side, fourth, trail third-place Barcelona by a point with the Catalans visiting Sevilla on Sunday.

Later Saturday, league leaders Real Madrid host rivals Atletico, second, in a tantalising derby clash.

Athletic's comfortable win at San Mames leaves them seven points clear of Villarreal in fifth, who face Las Palmas later on Saturday.

Spain international Sancet opened the scoring when his team were awarded a soft penalty and nodded home another four minutes later, just before the break.

Sancet completed his hat-trick late on as Athletic reached 14 games without defeat in La Liga.

Elsewhere Antony netted his first goal for Real Betis after joining on loan from Manchester United in January, although his team collapsed in a 3-2 defeat.

The Brazilian winger, United's second most expensive signing ever at £81.3 million ($101.5m) from Ajax in 2022, broke the deadlock with a fine finish before Diego Llorente doubled Betis' lead.

However Celta Vigo launched a stirring second-half comeback and triumphed with goals from Fran Beltran, Javier Rodriguez and Williot Swedberg.