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Atletico Madrid failed to make up any significant ground on LaLiga’s top three as their struggles continued with a 1-1 draw at Almeria.
Diego Simeone’s side have often struggled in this part of Andalusia and so that proved again on Sunday, despite Angel Correa’s 18th-minute opener.
Atletico would have been two in front if not for Geoffrey Kondogbia, who got a touch to Marcos Llorente’s goal-bound effort for the strike to be ruled out for offside.
El Bilal Toure headed in soon after and Almeria saw out a draw that leaves fourth-placed Atletico, who had Sergio Reguilon sent off late on, 13 points adrift of leaders Barcelona.
Atletico took the lead after Antoine Griezmann dummied Kondogbia’s pass for Correa to collect and tuck through the legs of Fernando Martinez.
Llorente’s shot 14 minutes later appeared to be heading for the net without the need for any intervention, but Kondogbia turned it in from an offside position.
Kondogbia’s misjudgement proved costly in the 37th minute when Toure powered a diving header past Jan Oblak after meeting Lucas Robertone’s right-sided cross.
Correa and Alvaro Morata should have done better with efforts that were kept out by Martinez, with the latter also heading wide from a glorious position.
Atletico substitute Reguilon was sent off in the closing stages after receiving two yellow cards in the space of four minutes, as Atleti’s disappointing run of form stretched to just one win in six league matches.
Atletico endured another frustrating day in a game they did more than enough to win, finishing as they did with an expected goals (xG) return of 1.17 compared to Almeria’s 0.42.
The Colchoneros have now won just one of their seven away LaLiga matches against Almeria, whose tally of five home wins this term is bettered by only two teams in the league.
While the draw has dragged Atletico back into the top four, they are seven points behind third-place Real Sociedad and are in a real battle to qualify for the Champions League.
Correa took his chance brilliantly, scoring from one of his game-high four shots – double the number of any other visiting player.
That was the Argentina international’s 50th LaLiga goal for Atletico, making him only the second player to reach that milestone under Simeone after Griezmann (102 goals).