Atletico Madrid midfielder Paulo Assuncao rued his side's inability to finish off lowly Almeria at the Vicente Calderon, but knows they cannot afford to dwell on the disappointing draw as they face two vital matches in the next week.

Atletico, who would have moved into the top five with a victory, laid siege to the Almeria goal early on and took a deserved lead through Sergio Aguero on 33 minutes. However, Almeria drew level though Pablo Piatti's fine volley on the stroke of half-time and Atletico were unable to find a winner.

Assuncao said: "We deserved the victory. We are playing good games and against Almeria we had chances in the first and second half to get another goal.

We deserved to go into the break in front. We cannot allow ourselves to drop points at home like this.
Paulo Assuncao, Atletico Madrid midfielder

"We deserved to go into the break in front. We cannot allow ourselves to drop points at home like this. Almeria played on the counter-attack and made the game a little difficult for us."

Atletico must pick themselves up quickly as they face Rosenborg in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday before making the short trip to face bitter local rivals Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Sunday. Assuncao added: "Now we need to lift our heads and think about Thursday's match against Rosenborg."

Atletico defender Tomas Ujfalusi was similarly frustrated following the Almeria result, telling his club's website: "This draw is a bad result, especially knowing how our rivals got on this weekend. Two more points would've been perfect. We created chances but the Almeria goalkeeper [Diego Alves] had a great game.

"The team fought throughout the 90 minutes, we went out well from the start but Almeria have defended well, above all in the second half. We have a very important week ahead of us with the games against Rosenborg and Real Madrid.

"We are focused on the match in Norway, although Sunday's match is a derby and a different type of game. But I repeat that we are only thinking about Rosenborg."