Two gifts in nine minutes, then an hour of hanging on
Real Madrid beat Inter Milan 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu to open their Champions League campaign. Both goals arrived before half-time. Everything after that was survival.
Inter owned the first 20 minutes. Marcus Thuram tested Courtois after three, Lautaro Martinez went close on 13, and the Bernabeu was already turning on its own team.
Then Inter opened the door twice. A mix-up between Jones and Bisseck let Brahim Diaz through, he squared it, and Kylian Mbappe slid it in on 14 minutes. Nine minutes later Inter’s Spanish goalkeeper hesitated as Federico Valverde closed him down. The Uruguayan got there first and scored. Chivu was livid on the touchline.
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Courtois held the fort
Inter kept coming. Jones hit the bar on 36. Carlos Augusto finished a low cross from the right on 77 to make it 2-1.
Thibaut Courtois was the reason it stayed there. He stopped Lautaro Martinez and then Carlos Augusto in the same passage of play on 49 minutes. He tipped a Bastoni header over from a corner on 63. And in stoppage time, with Madrid briefly down to ten, he pushed away a deflected Mkhitaryan shot.
The performance still needs work
Context matters here. Four days earlier Madrid lost 1-0 at Betis, their first defeat of the season, and Jose Mourinho wanted an answer. He got three points instead.
Trent Alexander-Arnold started ahead of a Konate-Huijsen centre-back pairing, with Brahim Diaz operating behind Mbappe and Vinicius. The finishing in the second half was poor. Bellingham took a touch instead of heading in from three yards on 58, then dragged another wide on 69.
Inter will be sick about it. Chivu swapped Pavard for Stones at the break and nothing changed about the shape of the night: his team played better and lost anyway.
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