Nico Williams returned to Athletic's starting eleven and decided the league match at San Mames against Oviedo with a fantastic goal, a 1-0 victory with an extraordinary strike from the international winger, who dribbled past every opponent he encountered. and finally beat Aaron Eacandell with a thunderous strike.

A 'delicacy' from Nico, in the 25th minute, which highlighted his performance of more than half an hour in which he showed better signs of the pubalgia he's been suffering from than in his previous lackluster matches.

Although Oviedo fought hard throughout, it was a deserved victory for Athletic that puts Ernesto Valverde's team on the verge of the European places and ends a bad run of four matches without a win, three of the last three, two in La Liga.

The defeat leaves Oviedo stuck in the table and in the bottom position, which they fell to this same matchday after Girona's victory over Alaves.

Another focus of attention in the match was the league debut and start of Selton Sanchez, a talented 18-year-old midfielder who completed a good hour of play, the time he was on the field.

Starting Luis Carrion opted for the expected starting eleven, while Ernesto Valverde surprised everyone by starting Selton and Nico Williams. Selton was included due to his youth (18 years old), and Nico because he had been severely limited in recent weeks by the pubalgia he has been suffering from. Oviedo started the match stronger, forcing their first corner within the first minute and a half. After those initial stages, Athletic took control of the game, also from their first corner, where Guruzeta surprised the Oviedo defense at the near post, but not Escandell, who was solid on the goal line. Two minutes later, the Valencian goalkeeper appeared three times in quick succession to prevent the home side from scoring their first goal. First, he won a one-on-one against Berenguer after a good combination play by the Bilbao team, and immediately afterward, following the corner from that play, he cleared a teammate's shot off the line and then Guruzeta's follow-up shot.

What Escandell couldn't clear was the tremendous strike with which Nico Williams finished off a spectacular individual run down the wing, beating Nacho Vidal, Colombatto, and Costas as they came at him, and also evading the attempted block by Carmo and the goalkeeper.

With everyone still talking about Nico's stunning goal, Oviedo managed to equalize in a baffling play by Unai Simon. He slipped the ball between his legs after a backward header from Colombatto that Ilyas tried to touch, taking advantage of the international goalkeeper's hesitation.

But VAR determined that the Moroccan's left heel was a few millimeters ahead and ruled him offside. The game slowed down, Guruzeta was denied by Carmo with a good shot, and then, in stoppage time, Simon redeemed himself after his earlier mistake by saving a cross-shot from Dendoncker after winning the second ball. Athletic started the second half better and strung together several dangerous attacks, but their forwards—Guruzeta, Berenguer, Nico, and Selton, and even Galarreta—lacked the finishing touch to convert the chances the plays demanded. The same happened to Rondon in Oviedo's most serious attack, a good combination between Reina and Colombatto. After the first round of numerous substitutions, Navarro and Berenguer did find the net, but so did Escandell, who then saw Berenguer send his shot high and wide again. A near-goal.

In the back-and-forth action, a 2-0 lead, which Rego had a chance to score, was closer to a 1-1 draw, although Oviedo never stopped chasing it.