Champions League Highlights: Mourinho, Haaland, and Aston Villa Shine
PARIS (FRANCE) – Jose Mourinho walked back into the Champions League and straight into a win. It was chaotic, flawed, and utterly his kind of night.
At the Bernabeu, his Real Madrid side beat Inter Milan 2-1, a scoreline that barely scratched the surface of the madness Mourinho later described as a game that “could have finished 7-6 without any problems.”
Mourinho back, Mbappé level with Raúl
Real, chasing yet another European crown with their record 15 titles already in the cabinet, have turned again to Mourinho for a second spell. Fate handed him Inter – the club he steered to Champions League glory in 2010 – as his first assignment back.
His new era started with gifts. Two of them.
Midway through the first half, Inter defender Yann Bisseck hesitated, and Kylian Mbappé did what Kylian Mbappé does. On his 99th appearance in the competition, he pounced to open the scoring and move to 71 Champions League goals, drawing level with club legend Raúl.
The second goal was even more calamitous from an Inter perspective. Goalkeeper Josep Martinez tried to turn away from Fede Valverde inside his own six-yard box. He dithered. Valverde did not. The Uruguayan nicked the ball and rolled it in for 2-0, the Bernabeu roaring at the sheer audacity of the press.
Inter, though, refused to fold. Carlos Augusto dragged them back into it, setting up a tense finish that fitted Mourinho’s assessment of a “crazy game.” Real bent but did not break, grinding out the kind of narrow European win their coach has built a career on.
Haaland the “animal” as City roll in Porto
On the same night, Erling Haaland reminded Europe that some numbers barely make sense.
Manchester City, now under Enzo Maresca, won 2-0 away to Portuguese champions Porto, both goals coming from their No 9 in the second half. Two minutes after the restart, Haaland met an Enzo Fernandez cross with a thumping header to break the deadlock.
Porto chased, pushed, opened up. Haaland waited.
Deep into stoppage time, he struck again to seal the points and lift his record to 59 goals in 59 Champions League appearances – a return that defies logic at this level.
“Erling Haaland is an animal. He is a beast,” Fernandez told Amazon Prime, promising to keep feeding the striker as often as possible.
For City, Champions League winners in 2023, it was a fourth straight victory in all competitions and a statement of rhythm ahead of their next European test: a home clash with holders Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa’s much-needed lift in Bruges
Aston Villa arrived in Belgium burdened by a poor start to the season and a goal drought in the Premier League. They left with a 3-2 win over Club Brugge and a sense that something had finally shifted.
Unai Emery’s side struck first. John McGinn curled a precise finish into the far corner, a trademark effort that felt like a release as much as a lead.
Club Brugge hit back through Hugo Vetlesen, only for Villa to respond almost immediately. Emiliano Buendia restored the advantage, and suddenly Villa looked like last season’s Europa League winners again.
The pressure told again just before the break. Two minutes from half-time, summer signing Nicolas Jackson raced through after Yann Sommer misjudged a charge out of his box and missed the ball. Jackson coolly slotted in his first Villa goal to make it 3-1.
The game refused to settle. Early in the second half, Nicolo Tresoldi pulled one back from the spot after a handball by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Tresoldi then struck the post as Brugge surged, but Villa clung on.
“We took one step forward today and it was very, very important for our confidence and stability,” Emery said, fully aware how much this win might ease the tension.
Guirassy at both ends in Dortmund thriller
At Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund opened their campaign with a 3-2 victory over Villarreal that somehow turned Serhou Guirassy into both hero and accidental villain.
Last season’s runners-up went ahead early in the second half when Renato Veiga turned the ball into his own net. Villarreal answered through Santiago Mourino, who climbed to head in the equaliser and silence the Yellow Wall, if only briefly.
Then came Guirassy’s surge.
With 10 minutes left, he restored Dortmund’s lead, finishing clinically to tilt the tie back their way. When a late penalty arrived, he buried it for his second and Dortmund’s third, seemingly putting the result beyond doubt.
The drama still wasn’t done. A Gregor Kobel save ricocheted straight into Guirassy’s face and flew into the net for an own goal that summed up the wild nature of the night. Dortmund held on, but Guirassy walked off with one of the strangest scorelines of any individual performance: two goals at one end, one at the other.
Parrott punishes Lille, Ueda shines
In Lille, Real Betis marked their return to the Champions League after 21 long years with a 3-2 comeback win driven by a familiar late hero.
Twice they trailed. Twice Marc Bartra pulled them level.
Japan forward Ayase Ueda struck first for Davide Ancelotti’s Lille, only for Bartra to cancel it out. Alexsandro, the Brazilian defender, restored the French side’s lead. Bartra answered again.
Then, on 53 minutes, Troy Parrott took over. The Irish striker, who had already delivered Betis’s winner against Real Madrid at the weekend, struck the decisive goal again to complete the turnaround and cap a whirlwind few days.
Lille’s night deteriorated further when Ethan Mbappé, younger brother of Kylian, was sent off, leaving the French club to finish with 10 men.
Marin magic for AEK
The final act of the night came in Greece, where AEK Athens edged LASK 1-0. The difference was a single, stunning free-kick from Razvan Marin, a strike worthy of deciding any European tie.
On a night that welcomed back old faces, unleashed familiar finishers, and reintroduced Betis to the big stage, the Champions League’s new league phase wasted no time reminding Europe how quickly a season’s narrative can twist.
