Atletico Madrid lean on Alvarez, a bit of luck to overcome Athletic Bilbao

Atletico Madrid scraped a nervy 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao to move provisionally top of La Liga on Saturday.

After Real Madrid, third, lost 2-1 at Real Betis, Diego Simeone's side capitalised at the Metropolitano stadium thanks to Julian Alvarez's second-half strike.

The Basque side, fourth, hit the woodwork three times in the hunt for an equaliser but Atletico held on to move top.

Barcelona, second and trailing by two points, can reclaim pole position with a win against Real Sociedad on Sunday.

"It's an incredibly important win, we knew it would not be easy," Alvarez told Movistar.

"We managed the game well, we had it under control, we knew how to bear their pressure and we take three very important points...

"We're in the fight for the title but we know there's a long way to go, a lot of very important games are coming close together, but with hard work and humility we'll achieve (our goals)."

Robin Le Normand headed over early on for Atletico, with Jan Oblak off his line quickly to make a superb save to deny Athletic's Inaki Williams at the other end.

Atletico coach Simeone's son Giuliano probed frequently down the right and was his team's most threatening player in the first half.

Dani Vivian blocked well from Samuel Lino's effort and cleared Alexander Sorloth's header off the line as the hosts pushed for the opener.

Ernesto Valverde's Athletic were quick on the counter and Williams lashed a shot into the side netting for the Basque side.

Atletico have often relied on their substitutes making huge impacts this season and so it proved again as they opened the scoring.

Simeone brought on Marcos Llorente and Alvarez just before the hour mark and the duo combined to open the scoring after 66 minutes.

Llorente delivered a fine low pass for the former Manchester City striker to run on to, and he finished with minimal fuss for his 10th league goal of the campaign.

Another substitute, Angel Correa, forced a smart save at his near post from Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon as Atletico tried to seal their win.

Athletic came millimetres away from an equaliser when Benat Prados headed against the post with Oblak beaten and Williams crashed the rebound off the underside of the crossbar and out.

The Ghana international hit the woodwork once again when his shot from the edge of the box struck Nahuel Molina and bounced back off the bar, with Athletic departing frustrated.

"I think we deserved a lot more, we had more chances than them, but it's not about who deserves what, it's about putting them away," Williams told Movistar.

"Today we had bad luck, we did everything possible to win ... and it wasn't to be."