Athletic Bilbao are holding title-chasers Real Madrid to a goalless draw at the halfway stage of their La Liga encounter this evening.

The hosts created the first clear chance of the half in the 20th minute when Aritz Aduriz danced his way into the box before creating space to shoot, but he curled his effort past the post when he should have done better.

Bilbao had another good opportunity just two minutes later. Iker Muniain latched on to Oscar de Marcos's low cross, but the Spaniard lost control of the ball just as he looked like opening the scoring.

As things stand, Madrid would remain third in the table, but a win would see them rise to second, one point behind city rivals Atletico Madrid and two ahead of Barcelona.