This archive report was first published on 7 December 2019.
Published on December 7, 2019, Atletico Madrid's fading title hopes took another hit as they were held to a 0-0 draw at Villarreal in La Liga on Friday.
The draw stretched Atletico's winless run to four games in all competitions, further denting their hopes of getting back in the title race.
Atletico, who have failed to win at Villarreal since April 2015, are sixth in the table on 26 points from 16 games, five behind Liga leaders Barcelona who have two games in hand.
Atletico's 126 million euro signing Joao Felix failed to convert any of his six chances, including a glaring miss in the first half where he was unmarked in the box but somehow sent the ball over the bar from close range.
Coach Diego Simeone said the poor results were affecting his players, stating, 'It's normal (that) when you are not getting results and are creating lots of chances but not finishing them off you start to feel anxious.'
'The only way to calm ourselves down is through hard work, as at the moment we're feeling anxious and are lacking precision. Once we manage to calm ourselves down, we will be ourselves again.'
Atletico drew a blank in a 1-0 defeat at home to Barcelona in La Liga and in losing by the same scoreline at Juventus in the Champions League in their previous two games.
Midfielder Koke said, 'The team kept on trying today but recently we are having no luck in front of goal.'
'You win matches by scoring and recently we have been finding it far harder than usual. We all need to reset ourselves and take a step forward so we can turn this situation around.'
