Sancet treble boosts Athletic Bilbao top four hopes, Antony nets for Betis

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Sancet scored Athletic Bilbao's second goal against Girona. AFP

Oihan Sancet hit a hat-trick to fuel Athletic Bilbao's Champions League push with a 3-0 win over Girona on Saturday in La Liga.

Athletic Bilbao sit in fourth place in the Liga standings and 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.

The Basque side'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.