MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s Marcos Llorente scored deep in stoppage time to cancel out Brahim Diaz’s first-half opener for leaders Real Madrid as the city rivals drew 1-1 in La Liga at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.

Real are on 58 points at the summit, two ahead of Girona, who they host on Saturday. Atletico remain fourth with 48 points, two behind third-placed Barcelona.

“It was a good game from our side, we controlled the game but we were unlucky to concede a goal in the last minute,” Real manager Carlo Ancelotti told reporters. “We did well, we deserved to win but we have nothing to complain about. We are leaders and we have another chance to take a big step forward next Saturday. The team has to be calm, a good point has come out of it.”

The hosts opened the scoring after 20 minutes when Diaz seized on a loose ball after some sloppy Atletico defending inside the box to slot home from close range and score his fourth league goal this season.

Atletico thought they had equalised in the opening minutes of the second half, but VAR intervened to rule out Stefan Savic’s towering header for offside.

Diego Simeone’s side finally scored in the final seconds of the game when midfielder Llorente headed past Real keeper Andriy Lunin from a Memphis Depay cross.

“The goal tastes very good, we worked hard during the game, we got a point and we are happy with the team’s work,” Llorente told Movistar. “It doesn’t taste like a win the way the game was going, but we got a valuable point.”

Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak made a solid stop from Rodrygo at the near post, with Ancelotti throwing out an arm in frustration.

Diaz nutmegged Mario Hermoso brilliantly and bent a shot wide of the far post moments before he was replaced by Joselu.

Real looked to have closed the game out but Atletico refused to give in and finally found the equaliser through Llorente.

It was the first time Carvajal and centre-back partner Nacho Fernandez had put a foot wrong, failing to react to Depay’s flick-on, and Llorente charged in to head past Lunin.

“(Atletico) are taller and they took advantage of that,” noted Ancelotti.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2024