Valencia’s Manuel Brito (left) vies with Athletic Bilbao’s Luis Prieto during their Spanish league match on Saturday. (AFP)

Madrid: An opportunist double from winger Antonio Guayre and a classy strike from Argentine playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme earned Villarreal a 3-1 comeback win at Real Sociedad on Saturday.

Guayre cancelled out an early goal from Sociedad striker Nihat Kahveci 10 minutes before the break and helped himself to another goal early in the second half, while man-of-the-match Riquelme weighed in with a virtuoso third 17 minutes from time.

Valencia missed their chance to put the pressure on leaders Barcelona and Osasuna when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by 10-man Athletic Bilbao in Saturday’s earlier match.

The results left Villarreal third in the table, level on 26 points with regional rivals Valencia and five behind Barcelona and Osasuna.

Sociedad, who went into the game on a five-match winless streak, caught Villarreal cold when Nihat gave them the lead in the fifth minute.

The Turkish international controlled a 40m pass from defender Daniel Cifuentes on his chest, fended off defender Gonzalo Rodriguez and poked the ball past keeper Sebastian Viera.

Villarreal, who lost their first game in 10 outings when they went down 0-2 to Barcelona last weekend, eventually found their rhythm and Riquelme manufactured their equaliser 10 minutes before the break.

The Argentine skipped past two defenders, collected an attempted lob on the byline and cut a pass back to Guayre who turned the ball into the net from a metre.

Guayre, who scored in the 1-0 win over Lille that took Villarreal into the last 16 of the Champions League in midweek, notched his third goal in two games by clipping the ball in from close range after Riesgo palmed a Forlan shot into his path.

Riquelme completed an emphatic victory when he made space for himself on the edge of the area and fired a wickedly dipping shot over Riesgo into the corner.

Meanwhile, Fiorentina climbed to second in Serie A after Stefano Fiore scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Treviso on Saturday, add reports from Rome.

The midfielder’s second-half goal gave the twice Italian champions 32 points from 15 games, seven behind leaders Juventus. AC Milan are third with 31 points.

In Saturday’s other match, an early goal by Albanian striker Erion Bogdani gave Siena a 1-0 win over Tuscan rivals Empoli.

Siena move up two places to 12th with 18 points from 15 matches, one point more than Empoli in 13th place.

Bogdani struck after two minutes, sweeping Simone Vergassola's low cross past keeper Gianluca Berti from close range.