Atletico Madrid coach Quique Sanchez Flores was pleased to see his side keep their Europa League destiny in their own hands.

Atletico did it the hard way by picking up a valuable point from their Champions League trip to APOEL.

A top-two finish in Group D was beyond both Atletico and APOEL heading into their clash in Cyprus last night, but with just one point separating the rivals at the foot of the standings it was all to play for in the race for third spot.

Hosts APOEL, who were bottom having picked up only one point from their four previous games, took the early initiative when Nenad Mirosavljevic scored after just five minutes, but Atletico battled back to claim a draw thanks to Simao Sabrosa's second-half effort.

The result means Atletico continue to hold the upper hand going into the final round of matches, where the Rojiblancos can secure a place in the Europa League if, in their game at home to Porto, they better or equal APOEL's result away to group winners Chelsea.

Atletico could even afford to lose against Porto as long as APOEL do not win, as the Spanish side also have the superior head-to-head record against the Cypriot champions, having drawn 0-0 at home and 1-1 away last night.

Sanchez Flores said: "The goal was to depend on ourselves to be able to continue in Europe. Now we have the final match and we can't pay attention to the other team to make it to the Europa League."

The former Valencia and Benfica coach admits it was another tough night for his side though, coming hot on the heels of their heartbreaking league defeat to Deportivo La Coruna at the weekend.

Atletico lost 2-1 at Depor after conceding a 94th-minute penalty, and that setback kept them in the Primera Division relegation zone with just one win and seven points from their opening 11 games.

With that defeat still fresh in the minds, to see APOEL take the lead so early last night must have been tough on Atletico, with Sanchez Flores admitting: "The fact is that I don't get the feeling that the match could have gotten much worse.

"These days, you really have to endure a lot just to get a point in any competition.

"Anything that means coming from behind in the scoring is uncomfortable for the team and especially for the minds of the players."

Goal hero Simao added on his club's website: "The most important thing is to continue in Europe. We talked before the game so that they wouldn't surprise us at the beginning, but it ended up happening anyway.

"Then we got stronger and we dominated the match, although we were unable to score a second. We have to start to play the first halves the way we play second halves. We're making ourselves suffer by coming out poorly."