Real Madrid suffered a significant blow to their hopes of retaining the La Liga title when ten-man Atlético Madrid held them off at the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday night.
It was a cautious start to the Madrid derby as neither team wanted to concede anytime soon. The locals had a couple of decent chances through Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema, but neither could get past Jan Oblak in the rojiblanca goal.
Diego Siemone’s side created few chances and instead hung back, defending deep and soaking up the pressure. They pummeled their hosts on the counter-attack when the opportunity presented itself.
Antoine Griezmann had a golden opportunity to tie-break shortly after the hour mark, but his shot from the edge of the box was deflected, much to the relief of Thibaut Courtois on Real Madrid’s goal.
Neither of them wanted to take more risks to advance and create clear chances, as the first half ended goalless.
A slow-burn game exploded when Ángel Correa nudged the ball away from Antonio Rudiger. The Argentine quickly received his marching orders.
Despite being down to ten men, Atlético took the lead on 78 minutes when José Giménez headed in a free kick from Griezmann.
Real were saved from embarrassment seven minutes later when 18-year-old Álvaro Rodríguez headed in an equalizer from a Luka Modric corner.
Atlético seemed happy with the draw as they sat back, looking to run out time. La Real tried to get the winner before the end, but Oblak collected a meek left foot from Benzema and derailed Aurelien Tchouameni in the final minutes.
The result means Los Merengues are now 7 points behind league leaders Barcelona, having played an extra game.
With the blaugrana out of the Europa League, Xavi’s men have their eyes on the title, since they could reach a ten point advantage at the summit if they beat Almeira on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Atlético sit fourth in the standings, ten below their city rivals.
Photo Credit: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
