Champions League Returns: Mourinho, Haaland, and Drama
PARIS (FRANCE) – Jose Mourinho walked back into the Champions League like he had never been away, and Real Madrid followed his lead.
On a night loaded with nostalgia and noise at the Bernabeu, the record 15-time European champions beat Inter Milan 2-1, a scoreline that barely scratched the surface of the chaos Mourinho later described as a game that “could have finished 7-6 without any problems.”
Mourinho’s Madrid back in the madness
His first Champions League outing of this second Madrid spell came against the club he turned into European champions in 2010. Sentiment lasted about five minutes.
Inter unravelled early. Madrid pounced.
Yann Bisseck’s error opened the door, and Kylian Mbappe stormed straight through it, marking his 99th Champions League appearance with the opener. The Frenchman now sits on 71 goals in the competition, level with club icon Raul – a statistic that underlines how quickly he has bent Europe to his will.
Inter then gifted Madrid another. Inside his own six-yard box, goalkeeper Josep Martinez tried to turn away from Fede Valverde. He misjudged it badly. Valverde didn’t. The Uruguayan robbed him and rolled in the second, the Bernabeu roaring at the sheer audacity of the press.
At 2-0, Madrid looked ready to run away with it. Inter refused to fold.
Carlos Augusto struck to drag the Italians back into the contest and silence the stadium for a moment, but Mourinho’s side saw it out, clinging to the points in a game that swung wildly, full of loose touches, big chances and nervous glances at the clock.
The score said control. The spectacle screamed chaos. Classic Mourinho Champions League, just in a new era.
Haaland the finisher, City the machine
In Portugal, Manchester City were far more clinical than dramatic.
Enzo Maresca’s team, quietly building momentum, collected a fourth straight win in all competitions with a 2-0 victory away to Porto, driven by the most predictable storyline of all: Erling Haaland scoring in Europe.
The Norwegian needed only two minutes of the second half to break the deadlock, rising to meet Enzo Fernandez’s cross and burying a header that felt almost routine given his numbers. Then, deep into stoppage time, he struck again to seal it.
Fifty-nine goals in 59 Champions League appearances. The ratio is absurd, yet already feels normal with Haaland.
“Erling Haaland is an animal. He is a beast, so every time he is on the pitch, I'm going to look for him, and hopefully give him many more assists,” Fernandez said afterwards.
City, winners in 2023, now turn towards a home clash with current title-holders Paris Saint-Germain, a heavyweight meeting that Haaland enters in ominous form.
Villa finally find their edge
Aston Villa arrived in Belgium with questions hanging over them. Europa League winners last season, they had stumbled into this campaign and reached matchday one of the Champions League group phase without scoring in three Premier League games.
They left Bruges with a 3-2 win and something far more valuable: a pulse.
John McGinn bent in a superb opener into the far corner to give Unai Emery’s side the start they needed against Club Brugge. For a team starved of goals, the release was obvious.
The lead didn’t last. Hugo Vetlesen levelled for the Belgian champions, only for Villa to respond with the kind of conviction that has defined Emery’s best work.
Emiliano Buendia quickly restored the advantage, then Nicolas Jackson added a third two minutes before the break. Jackson’s goal summed up the night: he sprinted through after Yann Sommer charged from his box and misjudged the ball, the summer signing coolly rolling in his first Villa goal.
Still, Villa rarely do it the easy way. Nicolo Tresoldi pulled one back just after the hour from the penalty spot following a handball by Aaron Wan-Bissaka, then rattled the post soon after. The visitors wobbled, but held.
“We took one step forward today and it was very, very important for our confidence and stability,” Emery said, and he will know just how fragile both can be in this competition.
Guirassy at both ends in Dortmund thriller
In Dortmund, the drama took on a stranger shape.
Last season’s runners-up opened with a 3-2 win over Villarreal, with Serhou Guirassy somehow finishing the night as both match-winner and accidental villain.
Renato Veiga’s own goal put Borussia Dortmund ahead early in the second half, only for Santiago Mourino to head in an equaliser for the Spanish side and puncture the home crowd’s optimism.
The game stretched. Spaces appeared. Guirassy seized them.
With 10 minutes left, he drove Dortmund back in front, then stepped up to convert a penalty for his second and his team’s third, seemingly putting the result beyond doubt.
He wasn’t done. A Gregor Kobel save cannoned back off Guirassy’s face and into his own net, an absurd own goal that dragged Villarreal back to 3-2 and left the forward with a surreal hat-trick of sorts. Dortmund, though, clung on, their campaign underway with both promise and warning.
Parrott steals the stage for Betis
In Lille, Real Betis’ return to the Champions League after 21 years carried the air of a celebration. It turned into a scrap, settled by a striker who is rapidly writing his own storyline.
Troy Parrott, the Irish forward who had already delivered a winner against Real Madrid at the weekend, struck again as Betis came from behind twice to beat Lille 3-2 in France.
The night belonged, briefly, to Ayase Ueda. The Japan international opened the scoring, only for Marc Bartra to equalise. Alexsandro then restored Lille’s lead, and once more Bartra dragged Betis level, a defender refusing to let the occasion slip away.
At 2-2, the tie hung in the balance. On 53 minutes, Parrott cut through the noise, hitting the decisive goal to crown Betis’ long-awaited return to the competition with a statement victory. Lille’s frustration deepened when Ethan Mbappe, younger brother of Kylian, was sent off late on.
Marin’s moment for AEK
The final act of the night came in Greece, where AEK Athens edged LASK 1-0.
It took a single piece of quality to separate the champions of Greece and Austria. Razvan Marin supplied it, crashing in a stunning free-kick that lit up an otherwise tight contest and gave AEK the perfect start to their group campaign.
Across Europe, the opening whistle of this season’s league phase delivered old faces, new heroes and the familiar chaos of the Champions League. Mourinho is back, Haaland keeps scoring, and the margins already look razor-thin.
