Valencia scored two late goals to return to winning ways with an important 2-0 La Liga win over 10-man Athletic Club at the Estadio de Mestalla.

Dani Vivian was sent off just after the hour mark for bringing down Baptiste Santamaria when he was through on goal.

Santamaria himself then opened the scoring 12 minutes later, heading home from close range from a well-taken corner by Javi Guerra.

That goal effectively seemed to take the sting out of the tie with Athletic down to 10 but the game was completely put to bed three minutes into stoppage time when Santamaria found substitute Hugo Duro, who tapped home from a yard out.

Photo by Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

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It was a good bounce back win for Valencia, after they were soundly beaten 6-0 a week ago by champions Barcelona.

They sit 10th in the table ahead of their trip to Espanyol on Tuesday evening.

Athletic meanwhile are in the midst of a goal scoring crisis, having failed to score in any of their four matches this month, losing to Osasuna, Alavés and Arsenal.

That run of form has seen them fall to seventh in the table, before they host Girona on Tuesday.