Real Madrid 2-1 Inter Milan: Clinical Los Blancos punish Inter in UCL opener | OneFootball

A clinical Real Madrid side ran out 2-1 winners at the Bernabéu this evening, soaking up plenty of pressure from Inter Milan but ultimately making them pay for two fatal mistakes.

Kylian Mbappé opened the scoring with Real’s first chance of the night, when he slid the ball past Josep Martínez. It was Martínez’s mistake that allowed Federico Valverde to double Los Blancos’ advantage in the 22nd minute, when he tackled the keeper and poked home from close-range.

Inter got a goal back late in the match, through Carlos Augusto, but it wasn’t enough in the end.

As it happened

With Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Guler and Bernardo Silva all suspended, José Mourinho made two changes to his Real Madrid side, which saw Brahim Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold replace Camavinga and Guler. Meanwhile, Inter made five changes, with Marcus Thuram, Curtis Jones, Hakan Çalhanoglu, Augusto and Benjamin Pavard all coming in from the start.

Thibaut Courtois was forced into an early save to deny Thuram’s close-range strike after just three minutes. Inter continued to dominate the opening stages of the match, and were perhaps unlucky not to go ahead when Andy Diouf’s low cross deflected off Dean Huijsen and flew narrowly wide.

Courtois made another strong save moments later, this time preventing Lautaro Martínez from opening the scoring. However, as is so often the case, Real Madrid took the lead with their first chance of the night, when Mbappé slid the ball home after Yann Aurel Bisseck lost the ball in a dangerous area.

Çalhanoglu looked to draw Inter level almost immediately, but could only find Courtois with his free-kick. Another mistake, this time from the Inter keeper, Martínez, was punished by Valverde in the 22nd minute, who took the ball off the Spaniard’s feet and poked it home from inside the six-yard box.

Two very nearly became three moments later with another rampant counterattack from Real, but Mbappé was tackled by Bisseck at the very last moment. Jones looked to get Inter back into the game on the half-hour mark, turning in the box before unleashing a powerful effort which clipped the crossbar.

Çalhanoglu was shown the first yellow card of the night for a foul on Jude Bellingham right in front of tonight’s referee, Michael Oliver. The final chance of the first half saw Martínez pull off a stunning double save to deny Mbappé and Bellingham at close quarters; therefore, the score stayed at 2-0 heading into the break.

Cristian Chivu turned to his bench at half-time, with John Stones replacing Pavard in the Inter Milan backline. The former Manchester City man was called into action almost immediately, making an excellent sliding tackle to deny Vinicius Jr.

Another incisive Real Madrid counter moments later saw Mbappé break free before forcing a strong save out of Martínez. At the other end, Courtois came off his line and made himself big to deny Jones’ close-range effort. Thuram also came close to getting a goal back for Inter, but he was unable to keep his shot down.

The visitors continued to push to get back into the game; this time, it was Lautaro Martínez and Jones being denied by a double save from Courtois. Bellingham looked certain to kill the game off for Los Blancos on the hour mark, but his effort was impressively saved by Martínez.

A double change followed for the Italian champions, with Çalhanoglu, Thuram and Barella replaced by Ange-Yoan Bonny, Petar Sučić and Piotr Zieliński. The latter played a brilliant ball into the danger zone straight after coming on, but the three Inter forwards in the middle failed to meet it.

Alessandro Bastoni took on a long-range strike shortly after, but Courtois was equal to it yet again. Martínez continued to redeem his earlier mistake with another strong stop to keep out Mbappé halfway through the second half.

Inter eventually got their goal in the 76th minute, halving the deficit through Augusto, who fired the ball home from inside the six-yard box. Mourinho made his first changes after the goal, withdrawing Alexander-Arnold and Diaz for Yan Diomande and Aurélien Tchouaméni. Huijsen and Lautaro Martínez were both booked moments later for an altercation following a high boot from Huijsen.

Inter’s final change saw Augusto make way for Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Meanwhile, Vinicius Jr. was replaced by Alvaro Carreras for the hosts; however, he had to wait for the ball to go out of play before he could enter the play after the Brazilian took too long to leave the field. While he was waiting, Mkhitaryan’s ferocious strike was palmed away by Courtois.

That proved to be Inter’s final chance of the night, though, as they fell to a 2-1 defeat, which was largely their own doing due to costly defensive errors.