Madrid, December 22:

Sergio Aguero’s goal in the 60th minute on Thursday earned Atletico Madrid a 1-1 draw with FC Barcelona and left the defending Spanish champion three points off the lead.

Ronaldinho’s trademark free kick opened the scoring in the final Spanish league match of 2006. Barcelona’s draw at its Camp Nou stadium continued a disappointing week. On Sunday, the club lost 1-0 to Brazil’s Internacional in the Club World Cup final in Japan.

Sevilla end the year as league leader with 37 points from 16 games, while Barcelona has 34 with a game in hand. Real Madrid is third with 32. Atletico climbed to fourth with 28, one more than Zaragoza and Valencia.

Ronaldinho struck in the 41st minute, dipping his free kick from outside the area to elude diving Atletico goalkeeper Leo Franco. The Brazil forward is the league’s second top scorer, two goals behind Sevilla’s Frederic Kanoute.

Atletico leveled when Aguero raced on to midfielder Peter Luccin’s through ball and flicked it past Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes. The goal was the fourth by the 18-year-old Argentine this season, his first in Spain following his $28 million transfer from Independiente.

Barcelona, already without the sidelined Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi and Gianluca Zambrotta, lost defender Lilian Thuram to injury immediately after Atletico’s equalizer. The match at Camp Nou was preceded briefly by somber music — as at all of Wednesday’s games — played in tribute to the four Recreativo Huelva supporters killed in a bus crash during the journey to Real Madrid on Wednesday. Thirty-five fans were injured.

On Wednesday, Sevilla trounced Deportivo La Coruna 4-0, while Madrid suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Recreativo. Other 16th-round results were: Valencia 3, Mallorca 1; Zaragoza 0, Athletic Bilbao 0; Getafe 0, Espanyol 1; Gimnastic Tarragona 0, Real Betis 1; Celta Vigo 0, Real Sociedad 0; Osasuna 2, Levante 0; and Racing Santander 2, Villarreal 1.