Atletico Madrid midfielder Tiago Mendes is frustrated by their form slide.

The veteran was part of their 0-0 draw with Espanyol on Saturday.

"I don't know what our poor away run is down to; we put a lot of pressure on Espanyol, we came close to goal lots of times, but it was not to be," said Tiago.

"It's a run of bad luck but it has to change fast. We need to collect our points in threes; there is a terrific struggle going on for third place, and we have to make sure of the points. You can't tell whether we'd have won with eleven men on the field, but obviously it is hard to play for so long when you're one man short."