After a very quiet opening to the match, the visitors suddenly created a golden opportunity from out of nowhere on the quarter-hour mark.
A beautiful back-heeled pass from Nahuel Molina set Rodrigo Mendoza up brilliantly, but he was denied by a superb block from Stole Dimitrievski. Just moments later, the Rojiblancos came even closer to taking the lead, when Molina’s outrageous long-range effort crashed off the woodwork to Valencia’s relief.
With 10 minutes to go before the interval, Diego Simeone’s side spurned two more great opportunities to make the breakthrough. A lack of composure from Robin Le Normand from inside the box saw his close-range strike blazed over the bar, while on their very next attack, Rayane Belaid could only steer a header wide of the target following an excellent delivery from Molina on the right flank.
Despite the visitors having the better of the first half, the Murciélagos came desperately close to breaking the deadlock after 39 minutes, when Largie Ramazani’s shot from the edge of the box struck the post.
Much like the beginning of the first half, both teams were slow out of the blocks from the restart, but Atleti proceeded to waste another promising chance on the hour mark, as an unmarked Belaid dragged his shot wide from inside the box following another intelligent delivery from Molina.
Just as it looked like the contest was going to peter out as a goalless spectacle, the visitors took the lead after 74 minutes thanks to debutant Iker Luque’s smart finish into the bottom corner from just under 20 yards out.
The goal stunned the Murcielagos home crowd, and despite Valencia’s best efforts rescue a point late on, another subsititue on debut, Miguel Cubo made sure of the three points as he latched onto Antoine Griezmann’s exquisite pass and lashed the ball past Dimitrievski and into the back of the net.
With four league games remaining for Valencia, Carlos Corberán’s side remain 12th in the table, just five points above the drop zone and will be desperate to return to winning ways when they travel to Athletic Bilbao next weekend. Meanwhile, Atléti stay fourth and must now switch their attention to the UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg away at Arsenal on Tuesday.