Barcelona: Antoine Griezmann missed a 90th-minute penalty and Atletico Madrid’s club record of 15 consecutive wins ended following a surprising 1-0 loss at Leganes in La Liga on Saturday.
Griezmann had a chance to at least snatch a point for the league leaders after a video review awarded Atletico a penalty for a handball by defender Sergio González. The French forward stroked his spot kick wide.
Griezmann and Julián Alvarez hit the woodwork in the first half, but the leaders couldn’t respond after Leganes defender Matija Nastasic scored with a 49th-minute header.
Last week, Atletico broke its own record for consecutive victories that stood at 13 in the 2012-13 season.
Atletico’s first loss since Oct. 27 left it one point ahead of Real Madrid, which hosts Las Palmas on Sunday. Barcelona was six points behind the front-runner before visiting Getafe on Saturday. This round marks the beginning of the second half of the league.
Leganes returned to the first division this season and has become a giant-slayer in the top-flight. The modest club from Madrid stunned Barcelona when it was leader in December. Its win over Atletico lifted it into 15th place.
“We don’t have anything special, this is just the result of the hard work we put in each week,” Leganes goalkeeper Marko Dmitoriv said. “We have beaten two of the three big teams in the league, so we have no excuse to perform like this each time out.”
Atletico, which was the biggest spender for Spanish clubs in the summer, is trying to win its third league under Simeone after titles in 2014 and 2021. Simeone said that during those championship runs, his side lost to smaller clubs Almeria (in 2014) and Levante (in 2021), and that didn’t stop them from still beating Barcelona and Madrid to the title.
“We had 15 wonderful games, a record in the history of this club. It was a great run that benefitted us in the league, Copa del Rey and Champions League,” Simeone said.
Atletico defenders Javi Galán and Clement Lenglet received their fifth yellow cards of the season and will miss the next round against Villarreal. But first, Atletico hosts Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Lukébakio produces Sevilla late winner Dodi Lukébakio starred again for Sevilla after scoring a solo effort in the 89th minute to complete a 2-1 comeback at Girona.
The Belgium forward tallied his team-leading ninth goal of the season after he nutmegged Ladislav Krejci before slotting the late winner past goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga. Gazzaniga saved a first-half penalty by Isaac Romero.