Real Madrid Title Hopes Hurt By Draw Score

After Atlético substitute Ángel Correa had been shown a straight red card in the 64th minute for an elbow to the chest of Real defender Antonio Rüdiger, José María Giménez gave Atlético the lead with a header from an Antoine Griezmann free-kick 12 minutes from time.

Real Madrid remain second in La Liga on 52 points, but are seven behind leaders Barcelona who can stretch their lead to 10 on Sunday when they face lowly Almería. Atlético are fourth on 42 points.

“I see [winning] the league as a very difficult task. It was before today’s game and now it’s got even tougher,” Real manager Carlo Ancelotti told Dazn.

“Today we lacked a bit of mental freshness, more than physical. Especially when they were down to 10 men, we allowed them to score and struggled to reposition ourselves. In the first half we had good control but the intensity was not high. Then we didn’t take advantage of the extra man we had.”

The match had started slowly on a freezing afternoon, with light snow falling on the Spanish capital and Real Madrid dominating play but unable to turn their numerical superiority into scoring opportunities.

Karim Benzema, Vinícius Júnior and Marco Asensio were erratic up front and could not find a way to break the deadlock as Atlético held fast with a five-man defence.