The intimidating Nuevo Colombino was the setting for a tensely contested game which saw the bottom side play Bilbao, who were just two places above them.
The home side had the best of the opening exchanges and Raul Molina's miss when clean through eventually proved crucial as the striker saw his wicked curling finish fly just past the post.
Just after the hour, Joseba Etxeberria fashioned the opening goal with some stunning wing play as he nutmegged his marker before looking up and rolling a superb ball across the face of the goal for Carlos Gurpegui to open the scoring.
Etxeberria came in for some brutal punishment for embarrassing the Recreativo defence as Iker Bergona caught him with a crude elbow to the back of the head.
Recreativo pressed on but were a shadow of their first half performance and substitute Xisco will feel he could have done much better with a free header just after he came on.
However, Bilbao wrapped up matters with five minutes to go with a razor sharp counter attack that left Santiago Ezquerro in the clear but he rolled the ball unselfishlessly across for Tiko to score into the open net.
Xisco blasted past Inaki Lafuente with a couple of minutes remaining but Recreativo were unable to level matters and Bilbao escaped with the three points.
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La Liga
Recreativo 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
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