Valencia: La Liga table leaders Atletico Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at Levante on Thursday (February 18), offering a faint chance to rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona of getting back into the title race.
Levante went ahead on 17 minutes when their group pressing helped win the ball and Jorge de Frutos accelerated down the pitch only for Enis Bardhi who pulled off a composed finish.
Atletico equalised when a speculative shot from Marcos Llorente, took a heavy deflection off the head of Levante defender Rober Pier and moved past wrong-foot keeper Aitor Fernandez on 37 minutes.
“We don’t look at the points difference, we’ve gained a point today and we don’t care about the gap, we’ll just keep focusing on winning each game,” said Atletico keeper Jan Oblak. “We played well but a defensive error cost us a goal. They didn’t have many chances after that and we missed really clear chances and it was down to bad luck that we didn’t win.”
Levante are 11th in the league table but they have a strong record against the top sides and also defeated Real Madrid with a shocking 2-1 scoreline last month. “We faced a tough opponent who are playing well. They’ve improved in defence and they bring the ball out well. They ended up scoring with their first chance,” said Atletico manager Diego Simeone.
“The team worked hard to equalise, winning corners, creating chances, and we got the equaliser. Then in the second half we did well, we had clear chances and in the end we could have lost with Levante’s chance. It was a fair draw.”
