Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 17:30• Mart van Mourik

Atlético Madrid painfully spilled points in La Liga on Sunday afternoon. From the 28th minute on, the Madrilenians played against ten men from Espanyol, which eventually saved a point from the encounter in the Wanda Metropolitano: 1-1. After Sergi Darder’s opening goal, João Félix prevented that more than ten minutes before time los Colchoneros went down. It was the fourth consecutive time in all competitions that Atlético failed to win.

From the first minute of play it was an attractive game for the neutral spectator. Espanyol clearly struggled with Atlético’s quick changes, which, incidentally, failed to create an acute threat. The game was broken open in the 28th minute of play, when referee Juan Pulido reached for his breast pocket. Leandro Cabrera pulled the emergency brake in an attempt to prevent Álvaro Morata from attacking goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte alone and received a direct red card.

???????????? ????????????! ??
The Portuguese shoots the ball nicely after a wonderful assumption ??
Can Atlético still win this pot? ??#ZiggoSport #LaLiga #ATMESP pic.twitter.com/9oa8u6aYBh

— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) Nov 6, 2022

Atlético hoped to exploit the numerical superiority via Morata and Marcos Llorente, among others, but the duo lacked sharpness in the completion. The score was broken in the second half. Joselu had an excellent pass to Darder, who convincingly nodded in: 0-1. For a while it looked like the home team was heading for a defeat, but in the final phase substitute João Félix made a save. On a pass from Thomas Lemar, the Portuguese put the 1-1 on the scoreboard via the left post. Afterwards, the team of trainer Diego Simeone went looking for the full loot, but it was not caught.