Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid: Score and Reaction from 2015 La Liga Match

Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon and missed the chance to return to the top of the La Liga standings on Sunday.

Karim Benzema helped Real take an early lead, while Antoine Griezmann had a first-half penalty saved by Keylor Navas—the only shots on target for either side until Luciano Vietto's 83rd-minute equaliser.

The game lived up to its billing early on, but soon descended into a tedious encounter, with Real content to hold their lead and Atleti unable to cause them problems for much of the proceedings.

Griezmann started out wide for Atletico, with Fernando Torres occupying the forward role. For the visitors, Sergio Ramos returned to the starting lineup after recovering from a shoulder injury, while Gareth Bale made the bench following his calf injury. 

The match started at a fairly frenetic pace, with both sides sending efforts off target after putting some testing crosses into the box.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Benzema broke the deadlock after just nine minutes. Fittingly, the forward rose brilliantly to nod home a header from Dani Carvajal's exceptional cross. The Frenchman's strike was his sixth in the league this season, making him La Liga's top scorer.

Atleti responded well to the deficit. The impressive Angel Correa fashioned some chances, with the precocious 20-year-old firing narrowly wide twice in quick succession.

The hosts were rewarded for their extended spell of pressure with a penalty after Ramos fouled Tiago, but Navas made an outstanding save to his left to deny Griezmann.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

The deflated Rojiblancos struggled to maintain their dominance after the miss, but with Real happy to sit back on their lead, the match devolved into an uninspiring affair, as demonstrated by football journalists Dermot Corrigan and Rik Sharma:

Squawka Football highlighted Cristiano Ronaldo's underwhelming showing:

Atleti boss Diego Simeone moved Griezmann behind Torres and threw on Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco and Vietto in the second half as he sought an equaliser, but his side created little of note, as the game saw a series of bookings in quick succession.

The Guardian's Sid Lowe expressed his disappointment with the match: 

A 1-0 win for Real appeared inevitable, but Vietto was on hand to bundle home a scrappy equaliser after Griezmann touched Jackson Martinez's cross past Navas and two Real defenders.

Martinez had a late effort saved by the Costa Rican stopper as the game roared back to life. But in the end, a draw was the deserved result.

It was far from a vintage performance by Los Blancos, but they have little reason to fear the struggling Levante in their next outing.

For Atletico, things still aren't quite coming together as they have in seasons past, but a trip to 16th-placed Real Sociedad in Week 8 could well prove productive.

Post-Match Reaction

As shared by AS English, Real manager Rafa Benitez thought his team gave away two points:

His Atletico colleague Simeone disagreed, believing his team was on the way to a win, per the club's official Twitter account:

"

. @Simeone: “The feeling is that we were very close to winning the match." #AtletiRealMadrid #GoAtleti pic.twitter.com/Vt0JVGMRZU

— Atleti English (@atletienglish) October 4, 2015"