▲ Atletico Madrid players celebrate.
South Korean football ace Lee Kang-in played his first starting debut wearing the uniform of Spanish professional football club Atletico Madrid, but failed to record an attacking point.
Lee started in the home match against Villarreal for the 2026-2027 La Liga Round 2 held at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano in Madrid, Spain, playing on the pitch for about 66 minutes.
Named in the starting lineup for his first official match since his transfer, Lee fought actively by recording the most shots within the team, but failed to record a goal or an assist.
Lee, who tasted goals in the league opening match against Malaga on the 20th, took charge of Atletico's front line alongside Ademola Lookman on this day.
Lee relentlessly knocked on Villarreal's goal by unleashing a total of six shots, the most for both teams, including four in the first half and two in the second half.
Although they did not connect into shots on target, he left a decent record with an 81% passing accuracy (25 successes out of 31 attempts).
Football statistics site FotMob gave Lee a solid rating of 6.9 after he was substituted off for Pablo Barrios in the 22nd minute of the second half.
Meanwhile, the match between the two teams fluctuated during the second half.
In the 14th minute of the second half, locked in a tight 0-0 tie, Atletico defender Marc Pubill scored the opening goal with a brilliant left-footed curling shot from outside the penalty area, taking the lead first.
However, in the 19th minute of the second half, the Atletico defense committed a foul inside the penalty box, conceding a penalty kick equalizer to Villarreal's Gerard Moreno. About 12 minutes later in the 33rd minute of the second half, they allowed another penalty kick goal, turning the score around to 2-1.
Amid this process, the team faced mounting adversity as defender Robin Le Normand, who protested fiercely, was sent off due to accumulated yellow cards.
Saving Atletico, who faced a dark shadow of defeat in numerical inferiority, was Giuliano, the son of team manager Diego Simeone.
Penetrating into the penalty box, he received a sharp through ball and pierced the net with a clean low shot, rescuing the team from crisis and leading them to a 2-2 draw.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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