‘Clear red’: Lee Kang-in caught in the Special One's crosshairs over tackle in Madrid derby

Atlético Madrid midfielder Lee Kang-in found himself in José Mourinho's crosshairs as the Real Madrid manager claimed that a bad tackle was a "clear" red card after his side lost the Madrid derby on Sunday.

Atlético won its first Madrid derby of the season 2-1 in the seventh round of the 2026-27 La Liga at home at Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium. The win lifted Atlético to second place and dropped Real Madrid to third. Los Blancos played most of the second half with 10 men after Dean Huijsen received a red card four minutes after the break and could not overcome the disadvantage.

Lee started on the right wing and played 89 minutes, threading the key pass that set up Jonathan David's clinching goal in the 59th minute. His performance, however, was overshadowed by a first-half tackle that became the focus of Mourinho postmatch complaints.

"The Special One" arrived at his press conference holding printouts of the tackle, which came in the 44th minute, when Lee stepped on Federico Valverde's ankle.

Mourinho said the play merited a straight sending off, but referee Ortiz Arias did not even show a yellow. He also pointed to a foul in the 37th minute, when Atlético's Cristian Romero struck Jude Bellingham on the knee and was only booked, saying both Lee and Romero should have been given marching orders.

"We can skip the press conference because the story of the match is right here," Mourinho said. "Those were two clear red cards. Given the difficulties we faced afterward playing 11 against 10, we can only imagine what 50 minutes of 11 against nine would have been like."

Real Madrid's official social media account also posted footage of Lee's tackle with the caption "A dreadful refereeing performance decides the derby," and said Valverde had injured his left ankle. The post, on an account with more than 180 million followers, effectively singled Lee out, and his own social media pages were flooded with abusive comments from angry Real Madrid fans.

Atlético manager Diego Simeone called for restraint. "I understand that we're in a privileged position with a lot of public scrutiny, as coaches, and whether it's Mourinho, [Hansi] Flick, [Manuel] Pellegrini, me, or anyone else, we need to be careful about what we say," he said. "We have to know how to respect others, the referees, our colleagues and we all lose out. And when someone crosses that line of respect, it's not right — you can't cross that line."

BY PIH JU-YOUNG, PARK LIN [[email protected]]