Luis Suarez had sent Atletico ahead in the 15th minute on Sunday with an excellent finish after being played in by Marcos Llorente.

Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak then made a superb double save from Benzema late on to keep his team's lead, but could not stop the Frenchman striking in the 88th minute for a crucial equaliser.

The draw means that Atletico still top the league on 59 points from 25 games, three points ahead of second-placed Barcelona, who beat Osasuna 2-0 on Saturday, and five ahead of Real.

Both Real and Barca, though, have played a game more than the leaders.

"This is a good point for us," Benzema said.

"We can be happy with the result, it's not over for us, we can keep thinking of [winning] La Liga.

"They had the first half and we had the second, we kept cool heads. I don't know if we're lacking goal power but we have to score more because we are creating chances."

The hosts missed a string of chances at Atletico's Wanda Metropolitano home with Yannick Carrasco, Llorente and Angel Correa particularly profligate.

Real offered little in what was a poor display until the final few minutes, when they burst into life.

Benzema saw three efforts saved by Oblak, but then stroked home after cleverly combining with Casemiro in the area to earn the visitors a point.

"We let two points clearly escape us," Atletico captain Koke said.

"In the second half if we were more accurate in front of goal we'd have won it.

"But we know Real Madrid's level, they are one of the best teams in the world, in any move they might score against you. We had chances to kill the game."

Earlier, Celta Vigo earned a thrilling 4-3 win at Huesca, with Fran Beltran scoring the decisive goal for the Galicians in the 76th minute - the seventh different scorer in the game.

Australian Associated Press