Mourinho exacts revenge on old flame Inter as Madrid survive late scare

Jose Mourinho saw his Real Madrid side beat his old club Inter Milan 2-1, and for long stretches it looked a comfortable European homecoming. Then Carlos Augusto smashed one back with thirteen minutes left, and 78,000 people spent the rest of the match holding their breath.

It’s the sort of result that will please Florentino Perez more than it will console. Madrid have gone two seasons without silverware, and they arrived at this tie fresh off their first league defeat of the campaign at Real Betis. Mourinho needed a response, and he got one, though not the tidy sort.

The Portuguese man took the Champions League with Inter back in 2010, at this very ground, days before he swapped Milan for Madrid the first time round. So there was always going to be a strange charge to this fixture, one former flame standing against the club he left it for.

Inter started the brighter of the two sides, Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez both testing Thibaut Courtois early, and for a spell it looked the visitors might make Mourinho pay for old times’ sake. Then, on 14 minutes, it all changed. Curtis Jones misplaced a pass under pressure from Yann Bisseck, Brahim Diaz nipped in and slid the ball through, and Kylian Mbappe did what Mbappe does. One touch, one finish, 1-0.

The second goal was almost a gift. Inter keeper Josep Martinez dawdled on the ball with Fede Valverde bearing down on him, and by the time he tried to turn away it was already gone. Valverde poked it home and Madrid had a two goal cushion before the half hour mark.

They should have had more. Martinez atoned for his error with a stunning stop to deny Jude Bellingham, then somehow kept out a follow up from point blank range moments later. Bellingham had another chance just before the hour after Diaz worked space on the byline, but chose to control rather than head in first time and Martinez got across to save again.

Courtois, for his part, was doing his own quiet work at the other end, turning away an Alessandro Bastoni drive to keep the gap at two.

And then with the game seemingly won, Inter found something. Lautaro Martinez whipped in a cross in the 77th minute and Carlos Augusto met it with real venom, beating Courtois to make it 2-1. Suddenly a routine European win had a pulse again.

There was a strange little flashpoint near the end too. Madrid fans grew restless watching Alvaro Carreras wait on the touchline to come on, the delay caused by Vinicius Junior taking his time to leave the pitch after being substituted. Small moments like that tend to get magnified when a lead is under threat.

Courtois had the final word, palming away a deflected effort from Henrikh Mkhitaryan to make sure Madrid took all three points home.