Valverde: "It's a good starting point"

Athletic Club Ernesto Valverde is hopeful Los Leones' 4-1 victory over Cádiz CF at San Mames can act as a catalyst for an upturn in results going into the second half of the season.

Los Rojiblancos were in fine form on Friday night, with Oihan Sancet putting in a particularly impressive performance to score a hat-trick and take home the match ball.

"It was a vital match. These are three important points to kickstart the second half of the season," Valverde said after full-time. "We won in the Copa and we won in LaLiga. Now we have to keep this going.

"Even though we scored first, Cádiz started the game well. But we were getting into their box and had some clear chances. Today we managed to convert our dominance into a win. It's a great starting point."

The emphatic win ends a run in which Athletic had not seen victory in LaLiga since before the World Cup. Valverde was happy not just that the Lions are over this poor spell, but also with how they did it.

"We're very happy because we wanted to end the negative slump as soon as possible," he said. "It meant a lot to be able to win. We're starting again and it's important to do it like this."