Atletico Madrid's awful free-kick routine during 1-0 loss to Mallorca

Atletico Madrid fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Mallorca this weekend.

The result means the club fail to extend their advantage over Real Betis, their main rival for the final Champions League qualification spot in this season’s La Liga.

Atletico are one point clear of their rivals having played the same number of games, but losing to 17th placed Mallorca will do little to help their bid for elite European football next year.

And given how the first leg of their tie with Manchester City went, it seems rather unlikely they will be qualifying automatically by winning ‘Old Big Ears’ itself in the current season.

The club came under heavy fire for their tactics on the night, as they failed to muster even a single shot against the reigning English Champions and ended the game with just 30% possession.

But it was to be a similar story in Mallorca, with Diego Simeone’s men once again failing to land a strike on goal in the first half. Vedat Muriqi’s 68th minute penalty was the only thing that separated the two sides and Los Colchoneros will be left ruing what could have been had they turned up on the day.

One moment in particular highlighted the carelessness and lack of creativity that is plaguing Atleti’s game at the moment – check out this abomination of a free-kick below:

Thomas Lemar stands over a dangerous dead ball situation just 22-yards out, it looks perfect for the Frenchman to sweep over the wall and into the back of the net.

Mallorca are obviously very preoccupied with that possibility because their nine man wall and keeper fail to spot Joao Felix wandering into space on the left-hand side of the penalty area.

The Portuguese starlet – who arrived at the Wanda Metropolitano for a mega fee of £113 million