By Sachit Subba • Football • Aug 23, 2026 03:52 AM • 45 views
Carlo Espi had been on the pitch for barely ten minutes when he turned Real Madrid's opening night from awkward stalemate into celebration, drilling home a 90th-minute winner to hand Jose Mourinho a 2-1 victory at Espanyol in his first match back at the club's helm.
The night had started brightly enough. Nine minutes in, Jude Bellingham rose above the Espanyol defense and nodded home a near-post header off a teasing cross from Arda Guler, the two combining for what looked like the platform for a routine away win. Guler and Bellingham kept finding each other through the opening half, swapping positions, trading passes, giving Real's midfield the kind of rhythm Mourinho will have wanted to see on day one.
But Espanyol had other ideas. In the 30th minute, Javi Hernandez slipped into the box and squared the ball across goal, finding Alex Calatrava unmarked and clinical enough to beat Thibaut Courtois. The hosts had leveled it, and suddenly Real looked less like the club that spent heavily over the summer to unseat Barcelona and more like a team still shaking off the rust of a long, disrupted preseason. Both Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior — back late after their World Cup break — struggled to find any real sharpness up top, flashing intent without ever threatening consistently.
Mourinho went to his bench at the interval, throwing on new arrivals Marc Cucurella and Yan Diomande as Real pushed to retake the lead. Federico Valverde nearly delivered it himself, cracking a shot off the post in the 78th minute moments after Espanyol keeper Marko Dmitrovic had denied Bellingham with a sharp one-handed stop. The winner, when it came, arrived through a different route entirely. Mbappe was dispossessed near the edge of the area; the ball broke loose, and Espi — on the pitch for all of ten minutes — smashed it past Dmitrovic to complete the turnaround.
It capped a productive night for Mourinho's reshuffled attack. Espi, a 21-year-old Spaniard signed from Levante after Real let Gonzalo Garcia leave for Fulham, offers a physical profile Madrid's forward line hadn't previously had — and he made his first involvement count.
"I believe that it must be hard for Espanyol to digest this loss. They fought, played well and held on until really late in the match but I think we deserved the win," Mourinho told reporters afterward. "It was a win with soul, with resiliency, with the strength we have from the bench. I'm happy with the hunger the players showed coming from the bench, that is what we need."
It wasn't the seamless start Mourinho or Real's supporters may have pictured after a summer of heavy spending aimed at dethroning a Barcelona side that has won back-to-back LaLiga titles. But three points are three points, and a debutant striker delivering the winner gives Mourinho something to build on as he starts shaping this squad into a title contender.
