Zinedine Zidane suffered his first defeat since taking charge of Real Madrid as Antoine Griezmann’s solitary strike kept Atletico Madrid’s faint La Liga title hopes alive with a 1-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Griezmann finished off a lovely team move eight minutes into the second half as Atletico Madrid became the first visiting team ever to win at the Bernabeu three seasons in a row.
Diego Simeone’s men moved to within five points of leaders Barcelona, while Real’s chances of landing just a second title in eight years now look completely gone as they now trail Atletico by four points in third place.
Photo: EPA
Barca could restore their eight-point lead at the top when they were due to face Sevilla yesterday.
“Once again the fans of Atletico Madrid can feel immensely proud of their players,” Simeone said.
The final whistle was greeted by howls of discontent from the Real fans, with chants for president Florentino Perez to resign.
“The league is over,” Zidane said. “You can’t be happy with a defeat, with what happened and how we played.”
Cristiano Ronaldo said Real could be leading the league if everyone on the team was at his level.
“It bothers me when it’s said that [Real] Madrid are struggling because Cristiano is struggling. It feels like you are after me,’’ Ronaldo told reporters. “If everyone was at my level, perhaps we would be in first place.”
The Portuguese striker later tried to downplay his comments, telling reporters he was referring to his “physical level.”
“I’m not better than anyone,” he said. “I was talking about the physical level, about the injuries.”
An error-strewn first half was played at a pace that suggested both sides had already given up on their title hopes.
The first shot on target did not arrive until the half-hour mark when Ronaldo’s free-kick was beaten out by Jan Oblak.
The rebound eventually found its way to Karim Benzema just inside the penalty area, but the Frenchman pulled his shot past Oblak’s far post.
Atletico were quite content to frustrate the hosts with 10 men behind the ball for long spells, but the visitors ended the first half the stronger and were unfortunate not to be in front when Keylor Navas produced a brilliant save to tip Griezmann’s long-range drive over the crossbar.
Navas also had to be aware moments later to prevent Koke’s drive sneaking in at his near post.
Real were dealt a blow at the break when Benzema had to be replaced by 18-year-old Borja Mayora, but the hosts had a great chance to break the deadlock just three minutes after the restart when Ronaldo dragged his shot wide with just Oblak to beat.
That miss proved costly five minutes later when Atletico produced the move of the match to snatch all three points.
Griezmann played in Filipe Luis on the left and the Brazilian fullback showed great awareness to return the ball back into the path of the France international, who fired low past Navas for his 20th goal of the season.
Atletico had the chance to kill the game off 24 minutes from time when they cut through Real’s brittle defense once more, but Navas rushed from his goal to block Saul Niguez’s attempted chip.
At the other end, Ronaldo should have leveled moments later when he headed straight at Oblak from Dani Carvajal’s cross.
Real claimed in vain for a penalty when Danilo tumbled under Gabi’s unwise challenge inside the penalty area 15 minutes from time, but referee Clos Gomez was unmoved.
Zidane threw on wingers Lucas Vazquez and Jese Rodriguez in the search of an equalizer, but having sacrificed Isco and James Rodriguez, Real lacked the creativity to break down Atletico’s brilliant defense as they held out for a 25th clean sheet of the season.
In Saturday’s other matches, RCD Espanyol won 4-2 away at Real Sporting de Gijon, RC Celta de Vigo grabbed at 1-0 win at Getafe, Real Betis Balompie were held 2-2 at home by Rayo Vallecano de Madrid and Real Sociedad drew 1-1 with Malaga.
Additional reporting by staff writer and AP
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