With another stumble at home, Atletico Madrid on Sunday again missed a chance to strengthen their lead at the top of La Liga as the club attempts to end its title drought.
Atletico conceded late to Real Madrid in a 1-1 draw in the derby, extending their winless streak at home and increasing the risk of being caught in their pursuit of a first title since 2013-2014.
Karim Benzema scored in the 88th minute after Luis Suarez’s early goal for Atletico at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Photo: AP
Atletico were coming off a 2-0 loss to Levante UD in their previous home match.
The hosts were in control during most of the game and squandered several chances to add to their early lead, before paying the price.
The draw kept Diego Simeone’s team five points in front of Madrid and only three points ahead of second-placed Barcelona, who won 2-0 at CA Osasuna on Saturday.
Atletico have a game in hand over both Madrid and Barcelona.
“We never thought it was going to be easy,” Simeone said. “People said we were going to win by 20 points, but I don’t know what they were thinking. It will be very difficult for all teams until the end.”
Atletico are trying to end a streak of league titles won by either Barcelona or Madrid since 2014. They have not beaten Madrid in 10 straight league matches — since 2016 — with five losses and five draws. They lost 2-0 in the teams’ previous encounter this season.
Madrid, coming off a disappointing home draw against Real Sociedad, had won three in a row against Atletico in all competitions.
“We are going to keep fighting until the end,” Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said. “There are a lot of games left and things can change quickly.”
The match was played without fans, but there was a large gathering of Atletico supporters outside the stadium before and during the game. Their chants and goal celebration after Suarez scored could be heard inside the venue.
They were loudly heard near the end of the match when Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak made two superb close-range saves off consecutive attempts by Benzema, who was back in the Madrid squad after an injury.
Oblak also stopped the striker’s free-kick a few moments later, but he could not stop Benzema in the final minutes, as the striker found the net from near the penalty spot after a pass by Casemiro in one of the few mistakes by the Atletico defense.
“When you miss your chances to add to your lead, sometimes 1-0 is not enough,” Simeone said. “We had our chances to seal the victory, but couldn’t capitalize on them and they were able to equalize.”
Atletico started the game pressing forward and opened the scoring in a breakaway in the 15th minute.
Suarez found the far corner with the outside of his right foot while facing Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois inside the penalty area after a pass from Marcos Llorente.
Madrid tried to gain control in the second half, but it was Atletico who threatened on the counterattack, as they squandered several good chances.
Madrid remained without injured captain Sergio Ramos, while Atletico welcomed back defender Kieran Trippier after he completed a 10-game ban for breaking betting regulations.
In the late match, eighth-placed Athletic Bilbao beat 10th-placed Granada 2-1 at home with the winning goal coming from Alex Berenguer one minute into second-half stoppage time.
Fifth-placed Real Sociedad continued their pursuit of fourth-placed Sevilla with a 1-0 home win over Levante with a goal by Mikel Merino in the 10th minute.
Earlier, Fran Beltran scored a 76th-minute winner as RC Celta de Vigo beat last-placed SD Huesca 4-3 after twice squandering the lead.
Celta moved to ninth place, while Huesca remained four points from safety.
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