Real Madrid’s wait for a home league win over Atletico Madrid has stretched to a fourth game after being pegged back late on in a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Bernabeu.
Los Blancos looked to have done enough to pick up three more valuable points in their pursuit of a first La Liga success in five years, only for Antoine Griezmann to cancel out Pepe’s opener in the final five minutes.
Real took time to truly get going but they soon found their rhythm, testing Jan Oblak for the first time 15 minutes in through a well-struck strike from Cristiano Ronaldo 25 yards out.
Karim Benzema exchanged passes with Ronaldo inside the box soon after and was presented with a clean shot on goal, which Oblak – with four clean sheets in his last five outings – was again equal to with a strong hand.
Real looked the sharper of the two sides for large parts of the opening 45 minutes, mainly due to the eight changes made by Zinedine Zidane from the weakened side that saw off Leganes in midweek, compared to Diego Simeone who stuck with the same XI from his side’s last outing.
Zidane’s men did not have to wait too much longer for the breakthrough goal, though, finally finding a way past Oblak 52 minutes in through a Pepe header, which he guided into the far corner at the end of a Toni Kroos delivery.
Dani Carvajal perhaps should have added a second two minutes later after getting on the end of a half-cleared cross, instead firing over the bar on the volley, though the Rojiblancos finally mustered a clear-cut chance on the hour which Fernando Torres failed to take.
The Spain international was thwarted by the outrushing Navas, but from the next big chance in the match there was to be a different outcome – Griezmann faring better by tucking into the bottom corner from similar range to snatch a point.
Real have now won just two of the last 13 meetings against their rivals in normal time.
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