Atletico Madrid suffered a hangover from reaching the 2017/2018 UEFA Europa League final in midweek as they slumped to a surprise 0-2 defeat at home to Espanyol on Sunday.
It was the Madrid side’s first loss in La Liga at their new Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
Midfielder Oscar Melendo put Espanyol ahead after 53 minutes with the help of a huge deflection off Atletico defender Stefan Savic.
Brazilian forward Leo Baptistao doubled the lead with a thumping low drive from outside the area against his old side.
Espanyol are 15th in the standings and had only won one of their previous seven games.
They were therefore unlikely candidates to become the first team to beat Atletico in the league since their 68,000-capacity stadium opened in September.
Atletico are second on 75 points, 12 behind champions FC Barcelona who have one game in hand and drew 2-2 with Real Madrid later on Sunday.
Diego Simeone’s side are three ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, who have also played one game fewer than Atletico.
Simeone made five changes to the Atletico team that beat Arsenal 1-0 in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg for a 2-1 aggregate win.
He left out influential defender Diego Godin and striking pair Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann.
Atletico had previously lost 1-2 at home to Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League in September and 1-2 to Sevilla in the King’s Cup in January.(Reuters/NAN)
