Real Madrid 2-1 Inter Milan: Mourinho beats his old club as the new Champions League era opens

The 2026-27 Champions League introduced itself with exactly the fixture UEFA would have drawn up if it could: Real Madrid against Inter Milan, at the Bernabéu, with José Mourinho on the home bench facing the club he took to the treble in 2010. Real Madrid won 2-1, and for most of the night it looked far more comfortable than the scoreline over Inter's late rally suggests.

Kylian Mbappé put the hosts ahead in the 14th minute, a goal that moved him level with Raúl on 71 Champions League goals — fifth on the competition's all-time list. Ten minutes later, Federico Valverde doubled the lead by robbing goalkeeper Josep Martínez of possession and rolling the ball into an empty net, the kind of goal that comes from a mistake rather than a move. Carlos Augusto pulled one back for Inter in the 77th minute, turning in a low Lautaro Martínez cross, but the visitors never found a second.

A reunion 16 years in the making

Mourinho's history with Inter is not incidental colour here — it is the reason this fixture carried more weight than a routine opening matchday. He won the treble with the Nerazzurri in 2010, including a Champions League final against Bayern Munich, and left that summer for Real Madrid itself. Sixteen years later he was on the opposite bench to the club that made him a European champion, facing Cristian Chivu's Inter in his own stadium. Beating his old side on the opening night of the league phase, at home, was as clean a story as the format could hand him.

Inter dominated the ball and still lost

The numbers tell an odd story next to the scoreline. Inter had 59% of the possession to Madrid's 41%, won 11 corners to Madrid's four, and out-shot the hosts 21 to 16. Real Madrid still finished with the better expected-goals figure, 2.91 to Inter's 1.78, and — more simply — scored two goals in the game's first quarter-hour cluster while Inter needed 77 minutes to get on the board at all. Cristian Chivu's side created plenty; they just handed Madrid the two goals that decided it, one from a keeper's error and one from a set of legs simply not quick enough to stop Valverde's press.

What the format makes of a win like this

This was also the first competitive test of the 36-team league phase for either club this season — eight straight seasons on from the old group-stage format finally gone for good. Every club now plays eight different opponents across the autumn and winter in a single table: finish in the top eight and there is a straight route to the round of 16; finish 9th to 24th and a two-legged play-off stands between a club and the last 16; finish 25th or below and the European season is already over by January. Three points from an opener against a side of Inter's pedigree is exactly the kind of result a club needs banked early, before the trickier away nights later in the schedule complicate the table.

Match facts

• 14' — Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid)
• 24' — Federico Valverde (Real Madrid)
• 77' — Carlos Augusto (Inter Milan)
• Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid — Champions League league phase, matchday 1, Tuesday 8 September 2026

Two different roads into the Bernabéu

Mbappé's goal was his fifth of the season already, continuing a run of involvement that has been the one constant of Madrid's start under Mourinho — a start that has not otherwise been perfect, given the shock 1-0 league defeat at Real Betis that preceded this game. Inter, by contrast, arrived unbeaten through three straight Serie A wins, the most recent a 3-2 escape act away at Napoli where they trailed 2-0 with under 40 minutes to go. Two sides in very different form met in the middle at exactly 2-1, which is closer to what the underlying numbers suggested than the early two-goal cushion made it look at the time.

What's next

Real Madrid take a maximum three points from a genuinely difficult opener into the rest of the league phase, with the visit of a leaner side than the one they beat on Inter's mind as they prepare their own next fixture. Both clubs return to domestic action before their next Champions League matchday, Madrid looking to put the Betis defeat behind them and Inter to keep Serie A's only unbeaten record outside the very top of the table intact.