{"id":888506,"date":"2026-09-08T23:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888506\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T23:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:12:12","slug":"real-madrid-somehow-cling-on-to-beat-inter-on-mourinhos-big-night-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888506\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid somehow cling on to beat Inter on Mourinho\u2019s big night | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes football is silly, sometimes it doesn\u2019t make much sense, and sometimes it\u2019s fun for it. On a night when there were 37 shots and the goalkeepers shared 13 occasionally absurd saves between them, Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s current side beat his former team Inter on his Champions League<\/a> return to Real Madrid. Just don\u2019t ask exactly how. Except perhaps to cite Thibaut Courtois, whose astonishing 89th-minute stop from Henrikh Mkhitaryan explained much and allowed them, just, to hold on to the first-half lead they had been given by goals from Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Fede Valverde.<\/p>\n

By Mbapp\u00e9, Valverde, and Inter themselves, that is. You might be tempted to say the Italians had shot themselves in the foot, only if they tried Courtois would probably save that too. \u201cIf he wasn\u2019t voted man of the match tonight, he never will be,\u201d Mourinho said. It took 77 minutes for him to be beaten, Carlos Augusto\u2019s goal giving this match a frantic last 15 minutes and Inter hope of justice, but it didn\u2019t happen again. So a game that could have had any scoreline \u2013 \u201c5-1 to us, 6-6, I don\u2019t want to say they could have won,\u201d Mourinho suggested \u2013 actually ended 2-1. Madrid\u2019s manager called it \u201cmad, and not a madness I like.\u201d<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t always good from Madrid, in fact at times it was terrible. There was a void where the midfield should be, Mourinho thanking Trent Alexander-Arnold for filling in a \u201cspecific\u201d midfield role that\u2019s not for him. The intensity in the press high up was matched by a passivity elsewhere. Inter played through and round them, clocking up twice as many attacks and passes. At the end the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u whistled; Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior in particular felt their frustration. Yet their team, who also could have won by more \u2013 Jude Bellingham said he had missed \u201ctwo sitters\u201d \u2013 have started with a win.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Mourinho makes his point against the team with whom he won the treble. Photograph: Diego Souto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The irritation had grown. When Madrid scored the first, this placed cheered but they might have laughed too. That Madrid led didn\u2019t make sense; not when it came to the goal, not when it came to the game either. It had taken Madrid four minutes to get a meaningful touch, and by then Courtois had already made a superb save from Marcus Thuram. But this is Madrid in the Champions League and now somehow they led. Ninety minutes later, they still did, which didn\u2019t compute either.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideDortmund’s Karetsas taken to hospitalShow<\/p>\n

Borussia Dortmund’s Konstantinos Karetsas was taken to hospital after slumping to the turf 25 minutes into his Champions League debut against Villarreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cKonstantinos Karetsas had to leave the field due to circulatory problems,\u201d Dortmund said in a statement. \u201cKosta is doing well under the circumstances and is on his way to the hospital for further tests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old Greece international passed the ball to a teammate then signaled his distress to the referee before sitting on the grass. Karetsas was treated laying down then taken away on a stretcher. The score was 0-0 at the time.<\/p>\n

Dortmund went on to win 3-2 at home. Renato Veiga\u2019s 53rd-minute own goal put the Bundesliga side ahead before Santiago Mouri\u00f1o equalised in the 66th. Serhou Guirassy restored the lead in the 80th minute and scored the third with an 84th-minute penalty, before scoring an own goal in added time while trying to help in defence.<\/p>\n

Real Betis twice came from behind to beat Lille 3-2 away, \u2060with Marc Bartra scoring in the 34th and 49th minutes before Troy Parrott\u2019s 54th-minute winner.<\/p>\n

Lille \u200bscored their opener in the 12th minute \u200cand regained the lead through \u200cAlexsandro in the 37th. The hosts later had Ethan Mbapp\u00e9 sent off for an elbow to \u200cthe face of an opponent.<\/p>\n

AEK Athens \u200bmade a winning start, beating the Austrian side LASK 1-0 in Greece thanks to Romanian midfielder Razvan Marin\u2019s curling free-kick midway through the first half. Agencies<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Inter had been playing with what looked like ease until suddenly even the simplest things looked complicated. Hakan Calhanoglu and Lautaro Mart\u00ednez had just fired off the third and fourth shots without reward when it happened. Inter had enjoyed 65% of possession so far but gave it up in a way that was comic. Curtis Jones struggled with the first ball, playing to Yann Bisseck who fatally lost his bearing and his footing. Stumbling like someone attached his legs the wrong way round, he gave it to Brah\u00edm Diaz who sent Mbapp\u00e9 away to score.<\/p>\n

It was Madrid\u2019s first shot and the opening goal. If that was silly, what came next was even more ridiculous. What is it Madrid do to goalkeepers in this competition? Receiving on his line, Josep Mart\u00ednez saw Valverde steaming in and tried a drag back, which failed. A flick of the ankle and the Uruguayan had scored. Twenty-three minutes, two shots, 2-0. \u201cThat was not chance,\u201d Mourinho said and the lead might have grown when another robbery saw Vin\u00edcius dashing away. Bissek, this time, made a fantastic saving challenge. For all the fortune this felt like a plan now: force the mistake, punish it. Madrid forced more too, which they didn\u2019t punish.<\/p>\n

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Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 opens the scoring for Real Madrid in the 14th minute. Photograph: Violeta Santos Moura\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Inter recovered and reasserted themselves, a calmness in possession at one end that contrasted with the calamitousness further back. Curtis Jones, Lautaro Mart\u00ednez and Augusto virtually walked into the area, where Jones\u2019 effort smashed the crossbar. Then another gift, from Benjamin Pavard, saw Madrid escape just before the break. Bellingham was denied by a wonderful stop from Josep Mart\u00ednez and D\u00edaz hit the post. Inter led 12-3 in shots, boasted 70% possession and had completed 125 final third passes to Madrid\u2019s 13. Madrid, though, led.<\/p>\n

Those numbers evened as the game opened, the second half beginning with Josep Mart\u00ednez coming out to stop Mbapp\u00e9 before Inter came back at them. Courtois saved from Jones, Nicol\u00f2 Barella shot wide and Thuram scooped over. The roar that then greeted an outrageous Courtois double stop spoke of disbelief, although the flag was up. The feeling was similar when Josep Mart\u00ednez scrambled across his line to stop Bellingham after D\u00edaz\u2019s glorious scoop over him and into the Englishman.<\/p>\n

A competition built between the keepers. Madrid could have killed this, many times. Inter could have revived it. Courtois saved from Alessandro Bastoni. Josep Mart\u00ednez saved from Mbapp\u00e9 with his legs. That was 6-5 to Courtois. There were whistles, frustration, but chances too: the 20 seconds or so between Lautaro Mart\u00ednez being blocked at one end and D\u00edaz slotting wide at the other told a tale. Inter finally scored when another incisive exchange saw Lautaro Mart\u00ednez pull back for Augusto to score. There were f15 minutes left and a game on, but that, somehow, was that. Which didn\u2019t make sense either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes football is silly, sometimes it doesn\u2019t make much sense, and sometimes it\u2019s fun for it. On a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-888506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}