Dean Huijsen Shines Despite Real Madrid Loss
On a night when Real Madrid finally tripped, Dean Huijsen walked off La Cartuja looking like he belonged to a different story.
While the team laboured, running again and again into green shirts and the inspired gloves of Vieites, the young centre-back from Málaga turned a difficult evening into a personal showcase. In a flat, goalless performance from the outfield players, he was the one who radiated authority, the only clear reason for optimism after the first defeat of the season.
Number 4 with a point to prove
The number on his back is no small detail. Huijsen took David Alaba’s 4 this summer, fully aware of the shadows it carries at Real Madrid: Sergio Ramos, Fernando Hierro, leaders who defined eras and set the standard for what a Madrid centre-back should be.
According to Marca, something has shifted in him since that moment. His mentality looks sharper, harder, more ruthless in the duel. There is a new edge to his game, a competitive toughness that belies his age and feels very much like the response to that shirt’s weight.
He had promised it himself: “What I know for certain is that I will give everything I have every day, whether that is in training or in matches.” At La Cartuja, the result went against him. His performance did not. He honoured that pledge from first whistle to last.
Locking down Cucho, standing up to Antony
Huijsen’s primary mission was clear: shut down Juan “Cucho” Hernández. He did it with a calm that bordered on ruthless. The Colombian barely had room to breathe in the box, let alone turn or threaten. Every time Betis tried to feed their striker between the lines, Huijsen read it early, stepped in, and cut the move at the root.
Betis then tried to drag him into wider, more uncomfortable spaces. It didn’t work. He matched Cucho for pace in open field and timed his interventions with a veteran’s sense of danger.
When the game’s temperature rose, he didn’t shrink. He went face to face with Antony, one of the Andalusian side’s most electric threats, and refused to give ground. It became a personal duel within the larger battle, and Huijsen never blinked.
More than a stopper
What separated him from the rest of his teammates, and put him alongside Arda Güler as Madrid’s standout performer, wasn’t just his defensive work. It was what he did with the ball.
He received under pressure and played out as if he were in a training drill. He stepped into midfield lines, broke the press with simple, sharp passes, and chose his moments with impressive clarity. No panic, no sideways default. Just the right decision, over and over.
And then there was his ambition going forward.
In the 11th minute, he almost ripped the script. Up for a corner, he stayed alive in the box, forced Vieites into a sharp save from close range, and moments later thundered a header off the crossbar. The stadium felt the shift. A centre-back, in the number 4 shirt, nearly becoming the unexpected hero.
After the break, he went hunting higher up the pitch. One aggressive recovery in advanced territory almost unlocked the game, turning into a near-perfect pass for Kylian Mbappé. A better finish or a touch more luck, and Huijsen walks away not just as Madrid’s best defender on the night, but the man who changed the match.
A partnership still under construction
Alongside him, Ibrahima Konaté delivered a solid but less convincing display. The Frenchman did his defensive work, but without the same serenity. On the ball and off it, he looked a step behind his young partner, still searching for rhythm and full confidence in the white shirt.
The gap between the two was clear. Huijsen appears settled, growing with each game, already dictating the line. Konaté, new to this environment, simply needs minutes and continuity to catch up.
Even so, the outline of a partnership is there. One defender already playing like a leader, the other with the tools to follow once he finds his best level.
Madrid’s unexpected defensive cornerstone
For a club that has spent recent seasons worrying about its back line, nights like this matter. Real Madrid lost, but in Huijsen they gained something they have been missing: a centre-back who restores calm, who looks built for big stages, who wears the 4 as if he has always known it would be his.
He is turning in performances that echo the standards of the legends he admires. Not in name, not yet, but in attitude and impact. And he is not hiding his ambition.
Huijsen’s personal target is clear: win back his place in Luis de la Fuente’s Spain side after missing out on the World Cup squad that went on to lift the trophy. Every tackle, every duel, every brave carry out from the back is part of that argument.
On a bruising night for Real Madrid, his message carried louder than the scoreline.
