Reuters – Ten-man Atletico Madrid dealt a blow to Real Madrid’s LaLiga title hopes when they held the defending champions to a 1-1 draw at their Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Saturday.
Real are second in the league standings on 52 points, seven behind leaders Barcelona who face lowly Almeria on Sunday and could extend their lead to 10 points with a win. Atletico 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 started slowly on a freezing afternoon, with light snow falling on the Spanish capital and Real Madrid dominating play but unable to turn their superiority into scoring opportunities.
