Atletico, who have not beaten Real since 1999, conceded twice in the opening 32 minutes and they could only pull one goal back when Sergio Aguero netted in the 86th minute.

That 2-1 defeat was the fourth time Atletico have lost to Real this season but Dominguez believes it could have been a different story, Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas denying them on a number of occasions.

Dominguez told AS: "This defeat hasn't left us demoralised, but very annoyed. I think we deserved a draw at least, that would have been the fairer result.

"We've tried, but it was difficult. We knew they were a very hard opponent but we've taken them on, we had our chances and we deserved more than one or two goals. That was the difference. To beat a team like this you need to have an exceptional day."

Goalscorer Aguero added on his club's website: "Our goal arrived very late and it was difficult to draw level. At least we tried but Madrid are a great team who are fighting for the league and it`s hard.

"They don't let you off the hook in front of goal, we tried to score but Casillas made some key saves. We did everything to draw level but we couldn't."

The defeat was Atletico's first in six matches and meant they missed the chance to provisionally draw level with sixth-placed Athletic Bilbao, who face a tough game against Villarreal tonight.

Aguero said: "Now we need to correct the mistakes for the next game. We always want to win, more so against Madrid as we haven't done it for 11 years, but we can't do anything about it and we need to continue forward. We want to get into the Europa League."