Actually they had quite a few opportunities, but unfortunately they missed the chance so much. The defeat by Bilbao meant that Atletico Madrid had to lose points and was threatened with further decline in its position if it continued like this. Indeed, recently, there have been several clubs whose normal for them to lead the match.
Btw, Barcelona is now still struggling against Valencia. In fact, Barcelona had led 1 - 0 through a goal from Joao Felix in the 55th minute. But in the end they had to be overtaken after Valencia equalized in the 70th minute through a goal from Guillamon. And up to now in the 90th minute, there have been no additional goals from either of them. The score is still the same at 1-1. I think Barcelona has to win here to really be in third place quite well.
Too bad for Atletico Madrid they conceded a 2-0 defeat by Bilbao away from home, Atletico Madrid dominated the game mostly but could create lots of chances to win Bilbao, even the few chances they got couldn't be converted to a goal, however Bilbao really utilized the advantage of their home ground, they stood their ground and created alot of chances and where lucky enough to score 2 goals, this victory would really boost the morale of their players.
I wonder why Barcelona have been struggling to win matches lately, could it be that Xavi's strategy is becoming outdated or the players are not working hard enough cause if you compare both squads you'll see that Barcelona are in a better position to win Valencia who are in 10th position in the standings, and if not for Joao Felix's opener goal Barcelona would had lost the whole 3 points completely.