A look ahead to a tantalising Champions League clash between Real Madrid and Inter
Tuesday night sees the return of the UEFA Champions League, when the cream of football clubs on the continent do battle to earn the right to have the prestigious honour of being called European champions.
Paris Saint-Germain will look to emulate Real Madrid and become only the second team in the modern era to do a 'three-peat.'
The French champions narrowly beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout in last season's final, whilst in 2024/25, they provided a masterclass against Internazionale to run out 5-0 winners.
Inter have lost all four games vs Real this century
The Nerazzurri begin their 2026/27 European campaign against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, and recent competition history is against them.
In four Champions League games against Los Blancos this century, Inter have lost them all, and the Serie A giants have also failed to beat Spanish opposition in their last 13 matches (D4, L9).
As if to labour the point, Real have also won their last seven home games against Inter, and Jose Mourinho certainly won't want to begin another European campaign with a loss in front of the Madrid faithful.
Mourinho vs Chivu at the scene of Inter's greatest triumph
In one of those strange quirks of fate that football often throws up, the Special One will be in opposition to Cristian Chivu, who played for Mourinho when the Portuguese coach was manager of Inter.
Chivu was in the Nerazzurri side that won the Champions League at the Bernabeu against Bayern Munich back in 2010, so the admiration between the pair will be mutual.
It was after his successes with Inter that Mourinho then moved on to manage Real, but he wasn't able to land the UCL for them, making it to three semi-finals during his first tenure at the club.
Therefore, the hunger that will be burning inside of him to go one better this time around is obvious, more so given that this game comes on the back of Real's first league defeat of the season, a 1-0 reverse at Real Betis.
Goals expected
If there was one characteristic of Mourinho's first term in Madrid, it was that his team were a fast, free-flowing outfit that scored goals for fun.
For Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, read Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Arda Guler.
The current three-pronged attack, along with Jude Bellingham, will be expected to lead from the front and take the game to their opponents.
Real under Mourinho in his first tenure scored in 97% of their Champions League games, and only Carlo Ancelotti had a better win percentage (68.8%) than the Special One's 66.7% (24 wins in 36 games).
Mbappe could go fifth in the all-time scorers list
Both Mbappe and Vini Jr have the joint-most goal involvements (52) in the last five seasons of the premier European competition, with the former also top-scoring in last season's edition (15 goals).
So rapid has Mbappe's scoring been in the UCL that if he were to get a brace in this match, he would move into fifth on the all-time scorers list.
His 70 in 98 matches to date means he only has to overhaul Raul (71), Benzema (90), Robert Lewandowski (109), Lionel Messi (129) and Ronaldo (141) to be the greatest scorer in Champions League history.
He could find it tough going against an Inter side that have kept clean sheets in 12 of their last 17 UCL group/league phase matches, however.
Inter & Lautaro in fine form
Denzel Dumfries gets an immediate chance to face his old teammates, having moved to Real from Inter during the summer.
His raiding down the right-hand side is likely to be a feature of this game, with Los Blancos on the front foot throughout.
Inter do have a decent attack of their own, of course, and talisman Lautaro Martinez was at it again at the weekend, scoring a late winner as his side recovered from two goals down to beat Napoli 3-2 at San Siro.
With three wins from three league matches this season, the Italians are certainly not to be taken lightly, even if their UCL record against Real does them no favours whatsoever.
Madrid have won 19 of their last 21 matches against Italian sides, and not since 2004/05 have Serie A's reigning champions beaten a Spanish team away from home.
Losing six of their last seven meetings and not scoring in three of those matches would suggest that Inter have a mountain to climb, too, but all mountains are there to be conquered at one time or another.
