Atlético Madrid, the defending champion, squandered its postponed match from the twenty-first round of La Liga, missing the opportunity to enhance its chances of participating in next season's Champions League, by losing at home on Wednesday to bottom-placed Levante 0-1. After their dramatic win on Saturday against Getafe 4-3, which featured six goals in the first half and was decided by a goal in the 89th minute, Atlético had a clear chance to secure its second consecutive victory and twelfth of the season against a struggling visiting team.
Levante entered the match as only the fifth team in the history of the league to win just one of its first 23 matches this season, following in the footsteps of Pontevedra (1969-1970), Logroñés (1994-1995), Sporting Gijón (1997-1998), and Osasuna (2016-2017). However, the team, which hired Italian Alessio Lichi to oversee it in early December, repeated the scenario of its last visit to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium when it won 2-0 last season, thereby ending a disastrous start that saw them wait until the twentieth matchday to taste victory (2-0 against Mallorca). Levante has become a headache for Atlético as the latter failed to win against them for the fourth consecutive match.
After 24 rounds, the team led by Argentine coach Diego Simeone, who is preparing to host Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 next week, remains in fifth place with the same number of points as fourth-placed Barcelona, which also has a postponed match. Meanwhile, Levante increased its points tally to 14 but remained at the bottom of the table, ten points away from safety.
The start for the capital team was very difficult against their visitors, who appeared to be the more dangerous side, threatening Atlético's goal several times in the first half, only to be thwarted by the brilliance of Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak. Atlético's performance improved somewhat but lacked effectiveness in front of goal with Uruguayan Luis Suárez sitting on the bench, leading to a scoreless first half.
However, Levante shocked their hosts early in the second half by scoring the opening goal in the 54th minute through Gonzalo Melero, who received the ball on the right side of the penalty area after a pass from Jorge de Frutos and shot from a difficult angle to Oblak's left. Despite the introduction of Suárez and Portuguese João Félix in the 64th minute, Simeone's team struggled to reach their opponent's goal for the remainder of the match, registering only a few sparse chances, the most notable being from Argentine Ángel Correa in stoppage time, followed by an acrobatic goal from the same player that was disallowed due to a foul prior to the ball reaching him. Ultimately, Simeone's men suffered their seventh defeat, which could have been worse with a second goal had it not been for the crossbar saving a late attempt from French player Mikaël Malsa.
