Jose Mourinho got off to a winning start on his return to the Champions League with Real Madrid on Tuesday as the Spanish giants beat Inter Milan 2-1, while Erling Haaland scored twice in Manchester City’s victory at Porto.
There were also wins for Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund on the first night of action in this season’s league phase, as the opening matchday spreads across three nights.
Record 15-time European champions Real brought back Mourinho for a second spell in charge, and his first game back in the competition came against the side he led to Champions League glory in 2010.
Madrid were two goals ahead midway through the first half at the Bernabeu thanks to two gifts from the Inter defence, with Yann Bisseck at fault as Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring on his 99th appearance in the competition.
Mbappe has now scored 71 Champions League goals, equalling the tally of Real legend Raul.
Aston Villa end goal drought, beat Club Brugge in Champions League opener
The home side doubled their lead when Inter goalkeeper Josep Martinez tried to turn away from Fede Valverde inside his own six-yard box only for the Uruguayan to tackle him and score.
Carlos Augusto pulled one back for Inter, but Real held on for the victory.
Enzo Maresca’s City won 2-0 away to Portuguese champions Porto thanks to a second-half brace by Haaland, the first coming two minutes after the restart when he headed in Enzo Fernandez’s cross.
Haaland sealed the points in stoppage time and has now scored an astonishing 59 goals in 59 appearances in the Champions League.
Villa, last season’s Europa League winners, put their poor start to this campaign behind them to beat Belgian champions Club Brugge 3-2 away.
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