Jose Mourinho said he was not feeling the pressure of winning the Champions League in his second spell with Real Madrid ahead of the beginning of their campaign this week.
In one of the standout ties on MD1, Madrid welcome Serie A champions Inter to Estadio Bernabeu, a side Mourinho will be all too familiar with.
Mourinho led Inter to European glory in 2009-10 before going on to join Madrid, with the Champions League the only title that evaded him during his first stint with Los Blancos.
He reached the semi-finals in all three of his seasons in the Spanish capital, losing to Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the final four, respectively.
Under the returning Mourinho, Madrid have scored in 97% of their Champions League matches (35/36). This is the highest percentage by any team with 20+ matches under a specific manager in the competition, and he often thrives in this competition.
Mourinho has managed the fifth-most matches in Champions League history since 1992-93 (160), with 36 of those with Madrid between 2010 and 2013, winning 24 (66.7%).
Only Carlo Ancelotti (68.8%) has a better win ratio with the club, among managers with 10+ games in charge of Madrid in the competition.
“No, it is two different spells,” Mourinho said when asked if he was in debt to the club and needed to deliver the Champions League this season.
“When I left in 2013, we won what we won and lost what we lost, and we gave it our all. And that was that. What I need to do now has nothing to do with the past.
“Back in 2010, we weren’t even reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and it had been ages since we’d played in a semi-final. Now we’ve won six Champions Leagues in a little over a decade.”
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) September 7, 2026
Madrid have won all four of their Champions League games against Inter this century. Indeed, they are the opponent that the Serie A giants have faced the most times in major European competition this century without managing a victory.
However, Madrid come into the clash off the back of their first defeat since Mourinho’s return, with Troy Parrott’s 81st-minute goal helping Real Betis secure a 1-0 triumph.
It was a dramatic ending at Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla, with Carlos Espi seeing a potential equaliser ruled out before Kylian Mbappe missed a stoppage-time penalty.
“We want to win every match, every competition,” he said. “But you have to work to accomplish stability. Stability. Stability. Structure,” Mourinho added.
“So Real Madrid need to achieve that stability that is so important to achieve something great. But Real Madrid are Real Madrid; you need to win here no matter what.”
The match will also see Mourinho reunited with Inter boss Cristian Chivu, who was in his starting line-up when the Nerazzurri beat Bayern in the 2010 final.
