Espanyol hold Atletico, Sevilla snatch late win
Atletico Madrid slipped up in the race for La Liga's top four on Sunday because they were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom club Espanyol.
Saul Niguez volleyed in a stunning equaliser at the RCDE Stadium but Atletico were not able to discover a winner as Stefan Savic's first-half own-goal earned Espanyol a very important point in their struggle against relegation.
The result is less useful for Atletico, who sit fifth, behind Getafe, who prevailed 1-0 away at Mallorca, and Sevilla, who beat Osasuna 3-2, because of a 93rd-minute winner from Youssef En-Nesyri. Real Sociedad are just a point behind and have a game at hand.
Espanyol stay 20th but are now only five points adrift of safety.
After their excellent victory in the home to Liverpool in the Champions League, Atletico were building some momentum if they defeated Villarreal 3-1 five days later.
But Diego Simeone's side have stumbled against the league's lower teams this year and so it proved again, as Espanyol dug deep for a deserved share of the spoils.
Atletico undertake fellow top-four hopefuls Sevilla next weekend and Simeone must opt to what extent he keeps one eye on the next leg at Anfield three days later.
Espanyol took the lead in the 24th minute when Savic turned in Wu Lei's cross at the near post plus they may have doubled their advantage had Atletico's goalkeeper Jan Oblak not made a brilliant save by tipping Victor Sanchez's thundering effort onto the crossbar.
Instead, Atletico equalised soon after half-time when Saul took the ball out of your air on the edge of the box and banged a wonderful volley into the far corner.
Joao Felix almost grabbed successful when his deflected cross came off Diego Lopez and hit the post while Alvaro Morata was unable to submit the rebound from the angle.
Sevilla looked like that they had disposed of victory when Osasuna came from two goals down to level after Aridane scored and Roberto Torres converted a penalty.
But En-Nesyri, who had also struck the opener before Lucas Ocampos managed to get two, scored his second of the game and Sevilla's third in injury time to snatch a dramatic winner.
Nemanja Maksimovic scored Getafe's only goal against Mallorca, who remain three points behind Celta Vigo in 18th.
