LaLiga president Javier Tebas. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Parking the bus. That’s the verdict history has handed down on Jose Mourinho – repeated so often that it has calcified into fact. It’s like a half-truth, enough to make it stick, but never quite enough to make it whole.

But Mourinho has worn it the way a magician wears a top hat: perfectly tailored, endlessly convenient, and never, not for one second, the whole trick.

Call him defensive, and you have only named the shadow he casts, not the man casting it. His teams defend well not because attack frightens him, but because chaos does. Evidently, in a Mourinho side, nothing is left to chance, more so when the motions of the game have already strangled every other variable into submission.

Pragmatism is the colder, harder word – less quotable and less fun to chant from the grandstands. So the easier opinion has survived instead, passed down like folklore.

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Just as false is the myth that his touchline is where creativity goes to die – a graveyard for gifted men. Every successful Mourinho side has had one player built into its architecture so completely that the team’s pulse becomes indistinguishable from his own.

Deco did not wither at FC Porto. Mesut Ozil did not shrink at Real Madrid. Wesley Sneijder did not dim at Inter Milan. Eidur Gudjohnsen and Oscar were not sacrificed on some altar of defensive orthodoxy at Chelsea. The names change, the pattern doesn’t.

That graveyard, as it turns out, was never there. Detractors simply needed it to exist, and told the story so many times that absence began to look like proof.

Elevating the whole

And now, in the early light of his second reign in the Spanish capital – a squad glittering with names built for newspaper headlines and highlight reels – Mourinho has once again refused the obvious altar.

The Portuguese is neither building his cathedral around Kylian Mbappe’s blistering speed nor around Vinicius Junior’s dazzling, unpredictable chaos, talented as both unquestionably are.

The ‘Special One’ is building it around Jude Bellingham. Because, when Bellingham ticks, Madrid ticks with him.

Mourinho did not ease the 23-year-old in gently. Just a week after he rejoined the squad following an extended break granted to Madrid’s World Cup contingent, the Englishman started centrally in the season-opener against Espanyol, pushing Bernardo Silva deeper and shifting Arda Guler wider.

If Bellingham was short of match fitness, it never showed. Everything coherent Madrid did that afternoon ran through him, like current through a wire. That he broke the deadlock himself, registering the first goal of Mourinho’s Madrid comeback, only made the script sweeter.

Mourinho has found a structure that lets Bellingham defend without shackling his attacking instincts, and the early signs are quite validating: two goals and as many assists from four league games, another goal directly created and the post rattled for good measure.

“He is a unique and extremely important player, one with diverse talents, from physical to mental and tactical. He also has the ability to win back possession, press effectively and score goals, especially in the air. He is an absolutely impressive player,” Mourinho gushed ahead of the contest against Malaga. In the 4-0 win, Bellingham scored one and assisted one.

Leading by example

Bellingham is the first Madrid player to contribute to at least four goals through the opening three matches of a league campaign since – fittingly – he himself did it, managing four goals and one assist upon first arriving on Spanish shores back in 2023. In fact, he had become the first Real Madrid player to score in each of his first four games since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

The numbers are starting to rhyme with the ones that made him a phenomenon in the first place.

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But this tells only a part of the Bellingham story. He has been among Madrid’s leading players in ball recoveries, chance creation and successful passes in the opposition half. He is helping Los Blancos progress possession, break lines, and win duels in the midfield. He presses like a man late for something urgent, creates like an artist with time to spare, and yet arrives in the box to finish the moves he himself started.

Here, there, everywhere

He is omnipresent on the pitch – at the shoulder of every teammate like a ghostly butler anticipating a need before it’s spoken, or hounding opponents like a sweat-inducing nightmare they can’t quite wake up from.

“Now I play with a bit more freedom, with the liberty to move further up or down the pitch, depending on our needs. I’m having a lot of fun, I’m really enjoying my football, and that’s why I’m performing well,” he declared after the triumph over Malaga.

In simple terms, what Mourinho is attempting is a kind of resurrection: coaxing back the version of Bellingham last seen in 2023-24, the one which scored 23 goals and set up 13 more in an astounding debut season.

England, for its part, would attest that the lad from the Midlands is at his most dangerous when he is at the centre of a team’s creative output – witness seven goals and an assist in eight matches at this summer’s World Cup, once he was finally deployed where he belonged.

And Madrid needs this every bit as much as Mourinho. The club must start restocking its trophy cabinet, so must he, for this is his last chance saloon. That he is building Madrid’s future, and staking his own claim to a prolonged, top-of-the-line managerial career, around Bellingham is not really a decision. It’s a no-brainer dressed up as a gamble.

The new main event

Madrid’s road ahead is no procession. Barcelona is playing like it has found a cheat code – seventeen goals scored already, and only two conceded. The fight for European glory looks no gentler, even if it began well enough with a 2-1 win over Inter Milan.

But if Madrid intends to mount serious title challenges on all fronts, it will need Bellingham to continue doing exactly what he’s doing now: running havoc from defense to attack, box to box, whistle to whistle.

Embracing it: Bellingham’s seven goals and one assist in England’s third-place finish at this summer’s World Cup was proof of his all-round worth
| Photo Credit:
Getty Images

The boy who once copied Brazilian Ronaldo’s Cascao haircut at Birmingham City FC could have grown up to be a footnote in someone else’s Real Madrid era – a talented supporting player orbiting Mbappe’s brilliance or Vinicius’ fireworks.

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But while Mbappe provides the spectacle and Vinicius the hustle, Bellingham provides the architecture. And architecture, in the end, is what outlasts everything else.

‘Hey Jude’ – that classic Beatles soundtrack of his debut season – had gone quiet last year, muffled under a run of injuries. Now, the Madrid faithful are singing it again, and for good reason. This, after all, is Bellingham’s team. He is not a supporting act dressed up in superstar company. He is the main attraction.

Mourinho spent more than 20 years making sure the story was always about him. Perhaps the last great plot twist is that he’s letting it be about someone else this time.

There were goals for Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland; and wins for Real Madrid and Manchester City as the Champions League returned Tuesday (September 8, 2026) for a new season.

Mbappe gave record 15-time champion Madrid an early lead en route to 2-1 victory over Inter Milan at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Haaland scored both goals as 2023 winner City beat Porto 2-0.

Madrid and City are expected to be among the main challengers to back-to-back defending champion Paris Saint-Germain this season, and each club will be relying on its star strikers.

Mbappe’s goal after 14 minutes was his 71st in European club soccer’s top continental competition and saw him move level with Madrid great Raúl in fifth place on the all-time scorers list. Haaland took his tally to 59 in 59 appearances in the Champions League.

Borussia Dortmund beat Villarreal 3-2, and Real Betis won by the same score at Lille.

Aston Villa also won 3-2 over Club Brugge, and AEK Athens had a 1-0 win over LASK. PSG begins its campaign Wednesday (September 9) against Slovan Bratislava.

Jose Mourinho made a winning return to the Champions League as Real Madrid coach, despite Inter dominating possession.

When Inter lost possession deep in its own half Brahim Diaz slid in Mbappe, who fired low past Josep Martinez.

The Inter goalkeeper was then guilty of indecision when Federico Valverde closed him down in his own area and poked the ball into an empty net.

Inter, which ended the game with 61% possession, set up a tense finish when Carlos Augusto scored in the 77th.

“There’s so much criticism when a game is boring, but today it was crazy — it could easily have ended 7-6,” Mourinho told broadcaster Movistar.

Mourinho won his second Champions League title with Inter in 2010 and is aiming to join the likes of Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Zinedine Zidane by lifting the trophy for a third time.

Unstoppable Haaland With five goals in his last three games, Haaland is in hot form. And it could have been even more if not for Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa’s first-half performance.

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland heads at goal on September 8, 2026
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Haaland eventually found the breakthrough at Estadio do Dragao with a header two minutes into the second half. He side-footed City’s second in stoppage time to make certain of the win and ensure new coach Enzo Maresca’s 100% start continued.

“We have to learn. Enzo demands a lot from us and we have to demand a lot from each other,” Haaland told Amazon Prime. “We have to win games because at Man City, you have to win trophies. That’s what we have to do at this club.”

Villa kicks off with a win. Aston Villa put its domestic problems behind it with a win over Club Brugge.

Victory in Belgium ended Villa’s winless and goalless start to its 2026-27 season, after early struggles in the Premier League.

John McGinn recorded the first goal of the Champions League campaign with a sweeping low shot from an angle in the 11th minute. Hugo Vetlesen equalized for Brugge, but Emiliano Buendia and Nicolas Jackson put Villa 3-1 up by the break.

Nicolo Tresoldi scored for the home team with a penalty in the 61st, but Villa held on for the win.

Villa coach Unai Emery will hope victory sparks his team’s season after the summer departures of star players Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Emi Martinez.

His much-changed team lost to Brighton and Arsenal in the Premier League and picked up its first point of the season with a goalless draw against newly promoted Hull City. It had recorded only one shot on target in those three games.

Borussia Dortmund teenager Konstantinos Karetsas was taken to hospital after slumping to the turf 25 minutes into his Champions League debut.

“Konstantinos Karetsas had to leave the field due to circulatory problems,” Dortmund said in a statement. Karetsas “is doing well under the circumstances and is on his way to the hospital for further tests.”

Serhou Guirassy scored three goals — two for Dortmund and one in his own net — in a frantic finish against Villarreal.

Guirassy gave Dortmund a 2-1 lead in the 80th and then struck again from the penalty spot five minutes later to make it 3-1. He then added an own goal in stoppage time to make it 3-2

Parrott strikes again It has been an eventful few days for Troy Parrott.

The Ireland international scored his first goal for new club Betis with a late winner against Madrid on Friday (September 4) and he was on target again with the decisive goal in the 3-2 win in Lille.

AEK Athens beat LASK 1-0 thanks to Razvan Marin’s brilliant first-half free kick.

Published – September 09, 2026 11:17 am IST

This was a sixth win in a row in all competitions for Athletic Bilbao.© AFP

Jose Mourinho says struggling Manchester United “will succeed sooner or later” as the Fenerbahce boss prepares to take on his former club in the Europa League on Thursday. United manager Erik ten Hag is under pressure after a poor start to the season, which has included draws in their first two European matches — against Twente and Porto. But Mourinho, who has also managed a string of other high-profile clubs including Chelsea, Real Madrid and Tottenham, said United had potential and he wants them to succeed. “Maybe you English guys think I’m bluffing, think I am playing mind games,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “I’m not playing anything — they have a better team than the results are showing.

“I studied them the maximum I could with my staff and my analysts. We watched everything in the Premier League, we watched everything in the two matches, Twente and Porto — there is work there.

“They will succeed sooner or later. Hopefully sooner and hopefully before one day I go back to the Premier League and they become my opponents. 

“At this moment they are just my opponents for one match.”

Mourinho, who managed United between 2016 and 2018, winning the League Cup and Europa League, was asked why his former club had struggled over the past decade.

“Honestly, I didn’t lose one minute thinking about it,” he said. “I wish the best to Man Utd since the moment I left.

“I left with a good feeling for the club, with a good feeling for the fans and I want the best for them, so if things are not going amazingly well for them it’s not something that makes me happy, but at the same time I have no time.”

The 61-year-old suggested that during his own reign at Old Trafford, the United hierarchy had not had the same patience they were showing towards Ten Hag.

“What happened for sure, because it’s very objective, is that they kept faith with the coach, they support the coach, who is staying season after season and that means stability, means trust and they are giving him conditions to keep developing his job,” he said.

“That was a difference in relation to me because as you know we won the Europa League, we finished second in the Premier League.”

Mourinho, who was named as the new Fenerbahce coach in June following his sacking by Roma, said United would be at “maximum strength” for the match in Istanbul.

“One thing are the results that Manchester United are having and another thing is the potential of the team,” he said. “The potential of the team is high.”

He added: “If I have to say now which are the two biggest candidates to win the Europa League, I think it’s easy — Manchester United and Tottenham.

“The Premier League is a different level of quality, intensity, pace, tactical culture — a different level of everything.

“Tomorrow, I think we are going to play against one of the two strongest teams.”

Jose Mourinho had claimed even Portugal’s reserves would be contenders for Euro 2024 and they relied on that strength in depth to beat a stubborn Czech Republic 2-1 for a winning start. Two substitutes combined for a 92nd-minute winner as Francisco Conceicao struck his first international goal with his first touch of the ball from Pedro Neto‘s cross. Another of those sent on by coach Roberto Martinez on Tuesday in Leipzig had also found the net, but Diogo Jota‘s header was ruled out for offside against Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal followed the path of England and France as all three of the pre-tournament favourites got off to winning starts, albeit in unconvincing fashion.

Ronaldo was as ever the focus of attention, but the Portugal captain endured a frustrating night. He will have to wait to add becoming the European Championship’s oldest goalscorer to his collection of records.

Martinez’s decision to stick by the 39-year-old as the focal point of his attack may come under closer inspection as the tournament progresses.

Ronaldo was dropped for Portugal’s final two matches at the 2022 World Cup and replaced by Goncalo Ramos.

The Paris Saint-Germain striker Ramos this time never got off the bench, along with Barcelona’s Joao Felix, to underscore the wealth of attacking talent on offer to Martinez.

“We are a country of 10 million but we have a huge amount of players in the (European) top-five leagues,” said Martinez.

“That’s a strength and a weakness. If you don’t use it well, it can become 26 individuals trying to show their own thing.”

‘Ultimate example’

The Spaniard Martinez has plenty of experience of major tournament football.

He took Belgium’s so-called golden generation to the World Cup semi-finals and Euro quarters, but this is his first shot at glory with Portugal.

Many have questioned whether the former Wigan and Everton manager is the right man to summon the best from such an abundance of talent.

The critics would have been ready to pounce as Martinez waited until the 89th minute to introduce Conceicao and Neto as part of a late triple change.

But on a night when Pepe became the oldest player in Euros history at 41, and Ronaldo also passed the previous mark for an outfield player, it was Portugal’s new generation that got them out of trouble.

Twenty-four years on from when his father Sergio scored a hat-trick against Germany at Euro 2000, Conceicao enjoyed his breakthrough moment for his country on German soil.

Conceicao senior has also been his son’s manager at Porto for the majority of Francisco’s club career.

Martinez, though, said the 21-year-old winger had proved he was worthy of standing on his own two feet.

“He is the ultimate example of earning it. He showed he is ready,” added Martinez.

“Francisco is a very mature player. He plays vertically and he’s got a nose for danger in the box.

“For a national team coach, having a player like that is great.”

Unlike England and France, who were 1-0 winners over Serbia and Austria respectively, Portugal were forced to come from behind after Lukas Provod put the Czechs ahead against the run of play.

Robin Hranac’s own goal quickly levelled and Martinez hopes the character showed by Portugal will make a “scary” collection of stars even harder to stop over the next month.

“Things were tough for us today, but the way the team reacted, it is great for a coach to have a group of players as resilient and scary as they are.”