Spanish champions Barcelona overcame the absence of their top scorer Samuel Eto'o and a one-goal deficit to beat ten-man Athletic Bilbao 3-1 at the San Mames in the Spanish La Liga on Saturday. Francisco Yeste put Bilbao ahead early in the first-half as Barcelona looked struggling to find the back of the net without Eto'o, who will be sidelined for five months after collecting a knee injury during the Champions League 1-1 draw with Bremen. But Barcelona skipper Carles Puyol leveled the score before the interval to make up for his own goal against the German side in the midweek. Strikers Eidur Gudjohnsen and Javier Saviola, always in the shadow of the Cameroonian striker, left their mark by scoring one goal each after the break to seal the victory. Barcelona's fourth victory of the season put them at the top of the table with 13 points, three ahead of Valencia and Real who play on Sunday. Yeste grabbed a surprising lead for Bilbao in the 11th minute when he connected with Fernando Llorente's deflected cross to send a brilliant left-footed volley past Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes.
Yeste Bilbao's hopes of maintaining their lead suffered a blow nine minutes later after Javier Casas was sent-off for pulling Barca striker Eidur Gudjohnsen's shirt. The Icelandic striker latched on Lionel Messi's through pass and was on his way on one-on-one situation with the keeper but Casas obstructed him. The Catalan giants benefited from numerical advantage just before the break to equalize through Puyol, who cut ahead of his marker to drill Gudjohnsen's cross home. Barcelona grabbed the lead three minutes past the hour mark when Gudjohnsen latched on to Xavi's superb through pass inside the area before lofting the ball past the advancing goalkeeper. Substitute Saviola ensured the win in the 77th minute after Xavi picked out Andres Iniesta on the edge of the area and the Spaniard passed the ball across to the unmarked Saviola, who found no difficulty in slotting the ball into the back of the net.
