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Lee Kang-in (25) of Spanish professional football club Atletico Madrid delivered an impressive performance against Barcelona, but was substituted after just 60 minutes. With his team also suffering a defeat, voices of regret emerged regarding Lee’s early substitution.
Atletico suffered a 1-2 comeback loss in their home match against Barcelona on the 9th (Korean time) at Riyadh Air Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain, in the 12th round of the 2026-2027 Spanish La Liga season.
With this result, Atletico recorded a record of 9 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses (28 points), securing third place in the league standings. Meanwhile, Barcelona maintained its top position with 11 wins and 1 loss (33 points). The point gap between the two teams widened to 5 points.
South Korea national team “ace” Lee Kang-in started as a forward in Atletico’s 4-4-2 formation on this day. He partnered with Argentine forward Julian Alvarez.
Although Lee did not record an offensive point, he played a crucial role in the process leading to his team’s opening goal in the 10th minute of the first half.
Lee, who received the ball on the right flank, delivered a fantastic left-footed outfront pass to Alvarez positioned on the opposite side. Following this, Alvarez crossed the ball toward Giuliano Simeone, who was making a run into the penalty area, and Giuliano calmly finished to score the opening goal.
The counterattack initiated by Lee’s sharp pass dismantled Barcelona’s defensive line.
Lee continued to assert his presence in attack thereafter. In particular, he provided Alvarez with another decisive scoring opportunity. However, Alvarez’s shot went significantly wide of the goalpost, failing to result in an additional goal.
However, Lee’s performance lasted only until the 15th minute of the second half. Atletico manager Diego Simeone substituted Lee for Norwegian forward Alexander Sorloth. Lee headed to the bench after playing 60 minutes.
Ultimately, Atletico suffered a narrow defeat at home against Barcelona. Overseas media also expressed regret over Manager Simeone’s timing in substituting Lee.
The U.S. sports outlet SB Nation’s Atletico-focused section, Into The Calderon, evaluated the performance of Atletico players who appeared in the match against Barcelona and assigned individual ratings. Lee received a rating of 7 points, tying for first place within the team.
The outlet praised him, stating, “Lee showcased a fantastic pass to Alvarez during the process leading to Atletico’s opening goal.”
It further explained, “He subsequently created another decisive scoring opportunity for Alvarez. He set up a one-on-one situation against the goalkeeper, but Alvarez’s shot went significantly over the crossbar.”
In particular, they expressed regret that Lee was substituted after just 60 minutes. The outlet stated, “Personally, I wanted to see Lee on the field for longer.”
They explained, “This is because Lee constantly created creative offensive threats during his time on the pitch and continuously troubled Barcelona’s fullbacks.”
Indeed, Lee demonstrated sharp passes targeting the space behind Barcelona’s defense and linked-up play on this day, injecting vitality into Atletico’s attack.
On this day, Lee recorded 24 touches, an 89% pass success rate (17/19). He attempted seven long passes and completed five of them. He also registered one shot on target and one successful dribble.
Football statistics outlet FotMob assigned Lee a rating of 6.6.
In contrast, Into The Calderon gave Alvarez a rating of 5.5 points for missing multiple scoring opportunities. He received an unsatisfactory evaluation despite recording an assist.
The outlet pointed out, “Alvarez took too much time and overthought things in his one-on-one opportunity against the goalkeeper.”
It continued, “He redeemed his earlier mistake with a wonderful assist that contributed to the opening goal, but he also missed a one-on-one chance in the second half,” adding, “Leaving such an Alvarez on the field for the entire 90 minutes was a difficult decision to understand.”
Into The Calderon evaluated, “Atletico struggled to create meaningful scoring opportunities capable of threatening their opponent after Barcelona’s comeback goal,” noting that they “failed to show any notable performance in attack until the end of the match.”
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