BARCELONA, March 1 (Reuters) – Atletico Madrid’s poor domestic form continued as they could only draw 1-1 away to La Liga’s bottom side Espanyol on Sunday.
Diego Simeone’s side had been lifted by last week’s 3-1 win over Villarreal and their 1-0 Champions League success over Liverpool but struggled against a determined Espanyol and fell behind through an own goal from Stefan Savic in the 24th minute.
It took an impressive save from Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak to keep out a strike from Victor Sanchez later in the first half which would have doubled Espanyol’s lead but the visitors levelled in the 47th through a superb volley from Saul Niguez.
Atletico are fourth in the standings on 44 points after 26 matches, one ahead of Real Sociedad in fifth and two above sixth-placed Getafe although both sides have one game in hand. Espanyol stayed bottom on 20 points. (Reporting by Richard Martin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)