Atletico frustrated as Mallorca hold them To draw

Atletico Madrid’s nightmare September rolled on as they stumbled to a 1-1 draw against relegation-threatened Mallorca on Sunday, a game where Julian Alvarez’s penalty miss and Alexander Sorloth’s reckless red card left Diego Simeone fuming on the touchline.

Fresh from a gutting Champions League loss to Liverpool, Atletico looked to reset in La Liga, but instead left Son Moix with more questions than answers. Conor Gallagher thought he had secured the points after cleaning up Marcos Llorente’s rebound in the 76th minute, only for Vedat Muriqi to rise highest with five minutes left and punish the Madrid side.

Alvarez, back from injury, had a game to forget, seeing his first-half spot-kick beaten away by Mallorca keeper Leo Roman, who also denied him twice more with heroic saves. To make matters worse, Sorloth’s clumsy, studs-up challenge on Antonio Raillo saw him sent off in the 72nd minute, leaving Atletico to defend with 10 men.

The result leaves Simeone’s men languishing in 12th, with just one win from their first five league matches — a crisis start for a side that began the season tipped as title challengers. Mallorca, sitting 19th, will feel unlucky not to have taken all three points after Jan Oblak had to claw away a Pablo Torre curler at the death.