Jan Oblak has conceded that Atletico Madrid have "thrown away" their chances of lifting the LaLiga trophy this season after falling to a 3-0 defeat against Rayo Vallecano. 

Oblak picked the ball out of the net twice at the end of the first half as Fran Perez and Oscar Valentin put Inigo Perez's side in control heading into the break. 

And Rayo's win was sealed in the 76th minute by Nobel Mendy, who rose highest to meet Alvaro Garcia's cross, confirming another damaging defeat for Atleti.

After Sunday's loss, the Opta supercomputer has assigned Atleti a 0% chance of winning their first top-flight crown since 2020-21, as they are now 15 points behind leaders Real Madrid in the table. They could be 16 points off the summit by Monday, when Barca attempt to reclaim top spot against Girona.

Their most likely position in its season simulations is third (63.5%), and they could have no complaints about the manner of their latest loss, having failed to truly test Augusto Batalla.

Atletico have now failed to win their last three league matches, their longest such stretch since the first three games of the season, and Oblak said their hopes of challenging for the title are now firmly beyond their reach.

"It seems that the league has been thrown away," Oblak said. "We can't lose games here, or play games like this. In this way, it will be difficult to compete.

"I have the feeling that we are not competing at our best. We deserved to lose."

Atletico's defeat came just three days after they put one foot in the Copa del Rey final after thumping rivals Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg. 

An Eric Garcia own goal was followed up by further strikes from Antoine Griezmann, Ademola Lookman and Julian Alvarez in a rampant first-half display. 

However, during the first 45 minutes at Estadio Ontime Butarque, Atletico conceded seven shots on target, their highest tally in the first half of a LaLiga match since March 2011, against Real Madrid at the Vicente Calderon (also seven).

When asked to pinpoint the differences between those two performances, Oblak said: "There is no explanation, but the only thing we know is that you can't choose the matches. 

"The head is not allowing us to win multiple games in a row and that is bad on our part. The team has to show its face, and today we didn't."

Simeone, however, did not agree with Oblak's post-match assessment, saying: "I don't agree with what Oblak said, the team doesn't choose games but just played badly."

The Atletico boss did, however, stress the importance his fringe players will have in the coming weeks, with the first leg of their Champions League play-off against Club Brugge coming up this Wednesday.

"If we want to advance in the Champions League and the cup and the league, we need everyone," Simeone said. "This is not 10, it is 23. We need to be ready to compete."