Real Madrid's wait for a home league win over Atletico Madrid has stretched to a fourth game after being pegged back late on in a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Bernabeu.
Los Blancos looked to have done enough to pick up three more valuable points in their pursuit of a first La Liga success in five years, only for Antoine Griezmann to cancel out Pepe's opener in the final five minutes.
Atleti have now won three and drawn one of the last four league matches at the home of their city rivals, with this latest result enough to derail Real's title hopes, as they can be caught by Barcelona on 72 points later today.
Had Saul Niguez been more accurate from his close-range header three minutes in, Atletico would have had a dream start on enemy territory, with that proving to be a rare first-half opening for the visitors.
Real took time to truly get going but they soon found their rhythm, testing Jan Oblak for the first time 15 minutes in through a well-struck strike from Cristiano Ronaldo 25 yards out.
Karim Benzema exchanged passes with Ronaldo inside the box soon after and was presented with a clean shot on goal, which Oblak - with four clean sheets in his last five outings - was again equal to with a strong hand.
The hosts were really beginning to step things up a quarter of the way into the contest, seeing a Ronaldo shot acrobatically headed clear off the line by Stefan Savic and Gareth Bale's deft header stopped down low by Oblak in quick succession.
That spell of dominance did not last too long, however, and once Griezmann pounced on a sloppy pass from Sergio Ramos in midfield he would have fancied his chances of running half the length of the field and slotting away, only to fall just short due to Keylor Navas's big stop.
Real looked the sharper of the two sides for large parts of the opening 45 minutes, mainly due to the eight changes made by Zinedine Zidane from the weakened side that saw off Leganes in midweek, compared to Diego Simeone who stuck with the same XI from his side's last outing.
It was Los Blancos who came out the stronger side in the second half, creating one early chance for Ronaldo to head wide and another - this time made by Ronaldo after peeling off unmarked at the back post - from which Benzema could only pick out Oblak.
Zidane's men did not have to wait too much longer for the breakthrough goal, though, finally finding a way past Oblak 52 minutes in through a Pepe header, which he guided into the far corner at the end of a Toni Kroos delivery.
Dani Carvajal perhaps should have added a second two minutes later after getting on the end of a half-cleared cross, instead firing over the bar on the volley, though the Rojiblancos finally mustered a clear-cut chance on the hour which Fernando Torres failed to take.
The Spain international was thwarted by the outrushing Navas, but from the next big chance in the match there was to be a different outcome - Griezmann faring better by tucking into the bottom corner from similar range to snatch a point.
Real, who have now won just two of the last 13 meetings against their rivals in normal time, will be watching closely as Barcelona take on Malaga at La Rosaleda in the evening kickoff.
