{"id":440278,"date":"2026-01-31T05:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T05:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440278\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T05:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T05:32:08","slug":"mourinhos-next-champions-league-test-brings-him-back-to-his-real-madrid-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440278\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho\u2019s next Champions League test brings him back to his Real Madrid past"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blockbuster reunion awaits in Europe\u2019s knockout stage<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/568868b73d588fd8e88a8a776c6b4192.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mourinho\u2019s next Champions League test brings him back to his Real Madrid past<\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid will meet Benfica in Champions League playoff round setting up major reunion with coach Jose Mourinho.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A blockbuster playoff match<\/p>\n<p>The Champions League playoff draw held on Friday produced high profile clash between Real Madrid &amp; Benfica.<\/p>\n<p>The two side already met on Wednesday in the final match of the league phase when Benfica secured thrilling 4-2 home victory.<\/p>\n<p>That result helped the Portuguese team book place in the playoff round and sent Madrid into extra knockout step.<\/p>\n<p>Now the teams will face each other again with one of the biggest storylines being the presence of Jose Mourinho on the Benfica bench.<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho back in the spotlight against Madrid<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho now 63 coached Real Madrid between 2010 &amp; 2013 and remains one of the most famous managers in the club\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Portuguese coach has also enjoyed major Champions League success in the past winning the competition with Porto &amp; Inter Milan.<\/p>\n<p>The upcoming tie will be the seventh time Mourinho has faced Real Madrid as opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Before Benfica\u2019s win on Wednesday, his record against Los Blancos included four defeat, one draw and only one victory which came in the most recent meeting.<\/p>\n<p>A Long rivalry across Europe<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho first played against Real Madrid as Porto coach in February 2000 losing both group stage matches.<\/p>\n<p>The sides met again during the 2003 \/04 season when Madrid won one match and drew the other.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Another notable encounter came in Super Cup on 8 August 2017 when Mourinho\u2019s Manchester United were beaten 2-1 by Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>Benfica\u2019s latest triumph finally gave Mourinho rare win over his former club and added extra tension ahead of the playoff showdown.<\/p>\n<p>The second leg of the playoff is scheduled for 24 or 25 February and it will mark Mourinho\u2019s first visit to the Santiago Bernabeu since leaving Real Madrid in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>With both clubs aiming for spot in Champions League last 16, the tie is expected to be one of the most watched matchups of the round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blockbuster reunion awaits in Europe\u2019s knockout stage Mourinho\u2019s next Champions League test brings him back to his Real&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[6328,10535,3788,658,207595,207596,4898,403,99],"class_list":["post-440278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-benfica","tag-champions-league","tag-manchester-united","tag-milan","tag-mourinho","tag-portuguese-team","tag-real-madrid","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}