After playing 88 minutes in Sunday’s Madrid Derby at the Metropolitano, Lee Kang-in walked — if not slightly limped — off the pitch to a round of applause, having done his part to help Atlético de Madrid to a 2-0 lead against bitter rivals Real Madrid. And even though Antonio Rüdiger’s late consolation goal threatened the result, Atlético saw it out in the end for a well-deserved 2-1 victory to enter the season’s first international break in second place.
Atlético have won three on the spin in LaLiga and have picked up 16 out of a possible 21 points. That’s an 87-point pace over a full season. While there is a long way to go — and with respect to Real Betis — the Rojiblancos appear right now as if they will be the only true challengers to rampant FC Barcelona’s throne in 2026/27.
Put aside for a moment that Atlético really, really want to beat Real Madrid in the derby. Los Blancos were genuinely awful on Sunday. They created just 0.32 expected goals, threatening even less after Dean Huijsen was sent off in the 52nd minute. Though Atleti struggled to get going in the first half, Diego Simeone’s men defended comfortably upon quickly negating José Mourinho’s counter-attacking strategy. Upon Koke’s entry at halftime, Atleti found the balance it needed to go and win the match.
That balance led to two goals: Alejandro Grimaldo’s penalty — scored on his 31st birthday — and Jonathan David’s eventual winner. Kang-in had a hand in both, as he continued his brilliant start to life at Atleti.
In the 49th minute of Sunday’s game, Kang-in intercepts a lazy Kylian Mbappé back pass and works to start a counterattacking move along the right side. Deep in the Atleti half, against a somewhat-engaged Real Madrid press, Kang-in pulls the ball back to avoid Arda Güler’s pressure; he knocks the ball off Güler, and Marcos Llorente steps in to form a passing triangle with Koke.
The captain receives from Llorente and wants to release Jonathan David into space, but Aurélien Tchouaméni closes off the passing lane. Koke and Llorente try again, and Llorente doesn’t leave Koke in a great position to receive the ball; Marc Cucurella arrives and blocks Koke’s attempt to play the ball to Álex Baena, who has dropped deeper and wants the pass played at his feet.
At this point, with six Real Madrid players on Atleti’s right flank, Kang-in picks up the ball following Cucurella’s deflection and bombs it over to the left flank, switching the play to an unmarked Dávid Hancko. The Slovakian then is completely free to carry the ball for roughly 60 yards before he switches play again.
It is here where Hancko’s long ball finds Giuliano Simeone in a dead sprint toward the penalty area, and Dean Huijsen hauls him down in the box. For denying a goal-scoring opportunity, Huijsen also is shown a red card, and Real Madrid end the game with 10 men.
It’s fair to argue that this sequence doesn’t take place if Kang-in doesn’t identify the pressing structure and act accordingly to move the play to the opposite flank.
Now up a goal after Grimaldo’s coolly-taken spot kick, Atleti push for a second and get it through David, who has scored three goals in as many league games since his arrival on loan from Juventus. The sequence ending in David’s 59th-minute strike is the most intricate back-to-front goal scored in a Madrid Derby for 20 years, based on the number of passes that knitted the move together.
To trigger it, Cristian Romero speeds up the play with a progressive pass to Giuliano, who then finds Baena in a pocket of space just inside the Real Madrid half. Baena attracts pressure from Tchouaméni and Ibrahima Konaté, but he remains in place and hits a one-touch pass to Kang-in, who is sprinting up the flank past Cucurella.
Receiving the pass with his right foot, Kang-in decelerates and draws Cucurella’s attention. But he surprises Cucurella by cutting nimbly to his left. By stopping the play, he allows Giuliano to overlap and catches Cucurella in the middle: does he track Giuliano or continue to hound Kang-in?
Yan Diomande arrives late to pressure Kang-in, who knows his next move already. With Cucurella still caught in between, he releases Giuliano down the right flank, and the Argentine hits a pinpoint low cross to David — who is unchallenged as he scores from a sliding finish. The center of the box was left vacant because Konaté never rejoined the play, while Denzel Dumfries allowed David to sneak behind him instead of continuing to mark him.
Kang-in picks up the hockey assist, Atleti go up 2-0 and are unfortunate not to get a third after Thibaut Courtois saves from Romero’s header — or from Julián Alvarez’s attempt on the rebound, which Konaté heads off the goal line. Koke and Kang-in managed the game well from there; it was more than a little surreal to see Atleti calmly, confidently and slowly moving the ball around the Real Madrid half — with only a couple interruptions — for the next 30 minutes.
Some Madridistas (not all) have argued, and will continue to argue, that Kang-in should have been shown a red card for a tackle on Fede Valverde in the 45th minute. By this point, surely you’ve seen how Mourinho responded to that in his post-match press conference. And as can be expected, Real Madrid itself has decried referee Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias’ performance as “dreadful.” Cool. I don’t remember your outrage when Dani Ceballos stomped on Pablo Barrios’ left ankle in a February 2025 derby. Must be my faulty memory.
At any rate, because Valverde got up quickly to protest Ortiz Arias’ non-decision, and because Real Madrid quickly resumed play to catch Atlético off balance, the Trujillo Suárez-helmed VAR room never got a chance to look at the incident. If they had, Kang-in admittedly might have been in some trouble; the South Korea star was fortunate to have avoided a booking, as his mistimed challenge caught a chunk of the Real Madrid captain’s left ankle.
That incident should be nowhere near the headlines though as it relates to Kang-in and his display in the derby. Handed the keys to the attack, he is demonstrating not only outstanding flair and technique but the work rate necessary to warrant such a role under Simeone.
One of Griezmann’s best traits always was how hard he worked and how much ground he would cover out of possession. It was a concern about Kang-in upon his arrival from Paris Saint-Germain that he is quickly putting to rest.
Of course, Griezmann has Atlético’s all-time scoring record with 212 goals; Kang-in has two. But Atlético fans know that what made Griezmann such a special player extended beyond his goals or his assists. So much of what made Griezmann an Atleti legend centered on actions he took in service of the team.
Though he recorded neither on Sunday, the man who has inherited Griezmann’s famous No.7 shirt is looking more and more influential as the games pass. His first derby wasn’t an individual masterpiece in so much as those performances are commonly understood: with goals and assists.
Instead, his work behind the scenes, melding the technical with the tactical, is making Simeone and Mateu Alemany’s bet on him to “replace” Griezmann look pretty smart.
