BARCELONA — Real Madrid's stuttering run continued as they were held 1-1 at home by La Liga minnows Eibar Sunday, drawing a fourth consecutive game in all competitions for the first time in more than a decade.
Fran Rico stunned the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium by opening the scoring for the visiting side in the sixth minute, facilitated by some questionable Real defending and goalkeeping from Keylor Navas.
Gareth Bale headed home a Cristiano Ronaldo cross to level in the 17th minute and score his 50th La Liga goal and the Wales international came close to grabbing the winner in the second half but headed against the far post.
Real was jeered off the pitch at the final whistle, which signaled a fourth consecutive draw following stalemates with Villarreal and Las Palmas and its 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Real surrendered top spot to Atletico Madrid, which beat Valencia 2-0 earlier Sunday and provisionally top the table on goal difference, while champions Barcelona can take first place if they win at Celta Vigo later Sunday.
Antoine Griezmann made amends for missing a second penalty in as many games by hitting the opening goal as Atletico was made to sweat to take all three points at Valencia.
The France hitman saw his first-half penalty beaten away by spot-kick saving specialist Diego Alves, who repelled another penalty from Gabi later on. But he finally blasted past the Brazilian goalkeeper in the 63rd minute, while Kevin Gameiro sealed the points in injury time.
Griezmann finished off a sweeping Atletico break after Yannick Carrasco had teed up substitute Fernando Torres, forcing Alves to parry, and Gameiro knocked the ball back for his fellow Frenchman to fire into the unguarded net.
Atletico withstood late pressure from the home side and Gameiro powered his way toward goal in the dying seconds, dancing past a defender to smash past Alves from close range.
Griezmann, who had struck the bar from the spot against Bayern and in the Champions League final against Real Madrid, missed a third straight penalty for Atletico as Alves dived to his right to save yet another spot-kick after setting a La Liga record last week.
After Griezmann had broken the deadlock Alves made his 19th penalty save in the league by denying Atletico captain Gabi from 12 meters, but his feats proved anecdotal.
Schalke finally gets off the mark in style
Schalke 04 finally picked up their first Bundesliga points of the season Sunday and did so in style by thumping Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0.
The win lifted Schalke off the bottom and into 16th place with both Ingolstadt and Hamburg SV below them.
VfL Wolfsburg and Mainz 05 drew 0-0 in the earlier game, a result which left both teams in the bottom half of the table.
Bayern Munich, held 1-1 at home by Cologne Saturday, leads the table by three points from Hertha Berlin with Borussia Dortmund a further point back in third.
