Atletico survives Real's onslaught: Draw in Madrid derby to Barça's taste

The third Madrid derby in a row in La Liga ended with a 1-1 scoreline, and that was probably the outcome Barcelona was most pleased with tonight.

There was no winner in the clash between Real and Atletico, so the Catalans have a chance to make an even bigger stir at the top of the table - if they beat Sevilla in Andalusia on Sunday night, they will move within a point of the "Colchoneros" and two behind the current champion.

"Madrileño" can be divided into two parts - in the first, Atletico played their game and took the lead with a goal from Julián Alvarez from the penalty spot, and then the home team dominated and probably deserved more than a draw.

VAR helped the referee award a penalty in the 35th minute after Aurelien Choumameni carelessly stepped on Samuel Lin, and the popular Spider was relentless from 11 meters - he undermined the ball and easily checked Thibaut Courtois for the advantage of Diego Simeone's chosen one..

The second half started with Real dominating, Kylian Mbappe equalized in the 50th minute., and the one most deserving of Atletico's point from this derby is Jan Oblak - the Slovenian stopped shots from Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo, Dani Ceballos and Jude Bellingham, who also hit the crossbar.

Mbappe scored his 16th goal in La Liga this season, and his ninth goal in all competitions in 2025.

Atletico threatened later, but the score remained 1:1, to the delight of Barca fans.

Fourth place is held by Athletic Bilbao, which was convincing against Girona 3:0, with a hat-trick from Oihan Sanseto, while Villarreal defeated Las Palmas away 2:1 with goals from Alex Baena and Ayoze Perez.

Celta was better than Betis in Vigo (3:2), although the guests led 2:0 with a goal from Antonio, a newcomer from Manchester United.