Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone lamented missed chances after his team fell to their first defeat of the season, losing 1-0 at new La Liga leaders Sevilla on Sunday.
A tight game in teeming rain at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan was decided by Steven N'Zonzi's cool finish on 73 minutes after Luciano Vietto's clever turn and pass.
Atletico's late push for an equaliser was not helped when midfielder Koke was sent off for a second yellow card, but they could have been ahead before the break after creating the better opportunities.
Young forward Angel Correa was guilty of a bad miss when clean through, and Simeone told his postmatch news conference: "We had good chances in the first half to break open the game.
"When you have good chances and play as well as we did, it is normal that you go ahead. It didn't happen, though. After half-time the game was heading down the same path, and then came the move from Sevilla. It was a tough game, difficult."
Simeone repeated his pregame prediction that Sevilla, who went top ahead of Real Madrid's match at home to Athletic Bilbao later on Sunday, could be involved in the title shake-up.
"As I said beforehand, both of us are aiming to keep in there competing with Real Madrid and Barcelona," he said.
"We were close in the first half to what we wanted to find. I am leaving here pretty relaxed as the team played as we hoped."
Simeone had made all three of his substitutions by the 65th minute in what was an absorbing tactical battle with Jorge Sampaoli -- their first meeting as coaches.
"In the second half Sevilla started well, so we sent on Tiago," Simeone explained. "Correa had a yellow card and we didn't want to take any risks.
"[Nico] Gaitan came in to bring what we were missing in the first half, help with circulating the ball.
"Tiago came on to add another body to the centre of the pitch, as [Samir] Nasri was getting in behind Gabi."
