Diego Simeone has conceded his Atletico Madrid team are out of the title race after watching them slip to a 1-1 draw against Valencia.
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The reigning champions have picked up just five points in four games since their memorable 4-0 local derby thrashing of Real Madrid last month, and are now seven points adrift of leaders Barcelona.
Atletico appeared to be on track for three points on Sunday thanks to a first-half strike from Koke, but a late leveller from Shkodran Mustafi allowed Valencia to claim a point and leave Simeone insisting that the title is a two-horse race between Madrid and Barca.
Atletico drop to 7 points off top. I know we’ve been punished for writing them off in the past, but they won’t retain title now…will they?
— Andy West (@andywest01) March 8, 2015
“I’m not going to give you a headline by saying we are fighting for the title,” he said.
Instead, the Argentine reiterated his pre-match claim the target is holding onto third place. The draw keeps Simeone’s side third on 55 points, one point ahead of Valencia, with Sevilla – who shared a goalless draw with Atletico the previous weekend – five points further back.
He added: “The league is long and our championship is with Valencia and Sevilla, neither of whom could beat us in the last two games.”
The Atletico boss was also keen to dispel any sense that his team have underachieved this season, pointing to the fact that they lost Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and Filipe Luis to Chelsea following last season’s memorable triumph.
“With the new squad we had to assemble, continuing to compete in the way we have done is great work by our players,” he said.
