A stunning four-minute scoring spree midway through the second half helped Athletic Bilbao defeat fellow Champions League hopefuls Malaga 3-0 at San Mames.
Malaga will feel they should have been ahead at half-time but they could not make the most of their various chances and were left shellshocked as Athletic netted three times in quick succession to take the spoils.
Substitute Fernando Amorebieta put the home side ahead in the 58th minute and Mikel San Jose and Gaizka Toquero quickly added further goals to settle the contest.
The victory sees Athletic leapfrog seventh-placed Malaga and move level on points with Espanyol, who started the day in fourth spot.
Athletic had lost their last two matches 2-1, going down to Real Betis in La Liga before losing to Lokomotiv Moscow in the Europa League on Thursday, and they must have feared another reverse today as Malaga made a superb start to the encounter.
Striker Sebastian Fernandez went close for the visitors inside the first minute and Athletic were then indebted to goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz for making a brilliant triple stop six minutes later to deny Jose Salomon Rondon twice and also Santi Cazorla.
Alarcon Isco then tested Iraizoz in the 15th minute as Malaga continued to search for the breakthrough, while Cazorla saw an effort go just over in the 39th minute.
With his side perhaps fortunate to still be on level terms, Athletic coach Marcelo Bielsa opted to make two changes at half-time, sending on star striker Fernando Llorente and Amorebieta, and it took just 13 minutes for the move to pay dividends as the latter put the hosts ahead.
Toquero sent over a corner from the right and Amorebieta turned it in right-footed in the middle.
Malaga almost found themselves 2-0 down immediately when Iker Muniain was denied by Willy Caballero following a rapid counter-attack, but Athletic did not have to wait much longer to net their second as San Jose headed in another Toquero corner.
Toquero then turned goalscorer less than a minute later as Athletic made it 3-0 to seal the points, the striker volleying in Ander Herrera's cross.
