South Korea national team defender Lee Han-beom, who joined Belgian powerhouse Club Bruges and has been active as a regular starter, has made his debut in the main stage of the UEFA Champions League (UCL).

Lee started as a center back and played the full match in the home fixture against Aston Villa (England) for Matchday 1 of the 2026-2027 UCL league phase held at the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium, on the 9th (Korean time).

Having advanced to the European stage in 2023 when he joined Danish side FC Midtjylland, Lee has established himself as a key player by starting all five Belgian Pro League matches since joining Club Bruges last month, and he also played the entirety of his first UCL fixture.

This marked Lee's first-ever appearance in the UCL main tournament.

During his time with Midtjylland, he experienced the UEFA Europa League main stage but had only featured in the UCL qualifying rounds.

Club Bruges started the league phase with a defeat, losing 2-3 to Aston Villa.

After conceding the opening goal to John McGinn in the 11th minute of the first half, Bruges equalized through Hugo Vetlesen in the 19th minute, but conceded consecutive goals to Emiliano Buendía in the 22nd minute and Nicolas Jackson in the 43rd minute.

They had to settle for pulling one back when Nicolò Tresoldi converted a penalty kick in the 16th minute of the second half.

According to football statistics platform FotMob, Lee recorded 114 touches, a 94% pass accuracy (95/100), a 100% aerial duel success rate (4/4), and a 60% ground duel success rate (3/5).

FotMob gave Lee a rating of 6.6, which is around the middle of the team.

Meanwhile, FC Porto midfielder Hwang In-beom started on the bench for the home match against Manchester City (England), stepping onto the pitch in the 23rd minute of the second half to replace Alan Varela and playing for about 20 minutes.

Hwang, who moved from Dutch side Feyenoord to Porto this season, is adapting by making mostly substitute appearances.

Porto lost 0-2 after conceding two goals in the 2nd minute of the second half and during stoppage time to Manchester City's star striker Erling Haaland.

In other matches held on the opening day of the league phase, Real Madrid (Spain) defeated Inter Milan (Italy) 2-1 to claim their first victory.

Kylian Mbappé, last season's UCL top scorer with 15 goals, opened the scoring in the 14th minute of the first half, and Federico Valverde also found the net in the 23rd minute to secure the win for Real Madrid.

Borussia Dortmund (Germany) edged past Villarreal (Spain) 3-2, and Real Betis (Spain) also beat Lille (France) 3-2.

AEK Athens (Greece) defeated LASK (Austria) 1-0.

A total of 36 teams are participating in this season's UCL league phase.

Divided into four pots of nine teams each, every team plays a total of eight matches against two opponents from each of the four pots.

As a result, teams finishing 1st to 8th advance directly to the Round of 16, while those ranked 9th to 24th compete in a playoff for a spot in the Round of 16.

(Photo: Getty Images)