Real Madrid – Inter

In Madrid, you should not expect an easy victory for the favorite.

Real Madrid underwent a genuine summer personnel revolution. It was driven by the club's results in the previous season, during which Madrid did not win any national or continental trophies. The coaching staff led by Jose Mourinho returned to the club. Real Madrid preserved the spine of its squad—Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius, Federico Valverde, and Jude Bellingham—shed anything that no longer fit, and was strengthened with quality players. Among the top acquisitions were Marc Cucurella from Chelsea, Jan Diomande from Leipzig, Denzel Dumfries from Inter, Carlos Espi from Levante. As free agents, Ibrahima Konaté from Liverpool and Bernardo Silva from Manchester City moved to Madrid. The start of the new season proved encouraging for Madrid's fans. The Whites swept Espanyol, Real Sociedad, and Malaga in succession, collecting nine points from the first three games. The royal camp was filled with smiles, Mourinho's jokes, and other signs of good spirits and easing tension. To end all this, the star-studded team only needed to lose to Betis on Friday. The Sevilla club exposed Real Madrid's problems. One of them was Vinícius ignoring Mourinho, who approached him after the match. Such scenes were not new to the fans, who had seen this from the team's capricious captain toward previous managers. Inter were the champions of Italy last season. The Milanese side, some of whose players had reached the Champions League final a few years earlier, carried the mood of the previous Serie A season into the new one. The result is three wins from three games. The most notable was the latest, played on Saturday at Giuseppe Meazza. Inter were trailing Napoli until the 82nd minute, after which they scored two goals to win 3-2. The last three meetings between Real Madrid and Inter in the Champions League produced at most two goals. In all of them, the Spanish side came out on top. Inter now appears to be a more cohesive squad, with mutual understanding and good spirits. Surely this will allow the Milan club to at least secure a draw in Madrid.