Athletic Bilbao have demanded tough action to be taken after their goalkeeper Armando was hit in the face by a bottle thrown from the stands, causing their Primera Liga match at Real Betis to be abandoned.

The Basques were winning Saturday's game 2-1, having just gone ahead from the penalty spot, when a fan threw a small plastic bottle full of liquid from behind the goal which hit Armando as he went to retrieve a ball for a goal-kick.

The keeper was taken off on a stretcher and had stitches for a cut just below his right eye, while referee Carlos Clos Gomez stopped the game with 18 minutes left to play.

"Referees, assistants, coaches and now a player. How long can we go on allowing this kind of thing to happen?" Bilbao said in a statement.

"It isn't right that we should leave it up to fortune as to whether or not our goalkeeper is left blinded. We cannot put the contestants at risk debating whether there should be a two or 120-match stadium ban. What hurts are the points. The Spanish league must not hold back. It is time to be European and to take drastic action."

After the match at Betis's Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stadium, Bilbao coach Joaquin Caparros told reporters: "It's an atrocity. We have to stop these kind of things happening."

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