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It was just like old times as José Mourinho ended a night at Camp Nou with a knee slide and three points José Mourinho had already done the por qu é? , the printout and the press conference no-show in under 100 days. Now he’s done a knee slide too, and in the perfect place: back where it all began and where it can all begin again. When Kylian Mbappé scored the first in the clásico on Sunday night, Real Madrid’s manager hardly moved, sitting in the shadow of the bench – but when the striker got the second to win it with time running out, that was different. Mourinho leapt into the light, throwing himself to the grass, the knees of a 63-year-old’s trousers muddy as a schoolboy’s, stuck his tongue out and pumped his fists. He does so love it when a plan comes together. To the right of him, the bench was emptying, subs joining the players in sprinting towards the south-west corner. As they leapt about, dodging the bottles thrown towards them from the end, way, way up in the furthest corner and stuck inside a glass box like a bunch of David Blaines, the small group of Madrid fans who had come were going mad. In the main stand, a thousand phones were raised. And 600 kilometres west, back in Boadilla, Thibaut Courtois was watching his teammates from the sofa at home, presumably wrapped in a blanket and cradling a cup of Lemsip. On the morning of the biggest game there is, he awoke with flu, forced to miss out. Continue reading...

Thirteen years later, José Mourinho led Real Madrid into the Camp Nou as one team and them out again as another having secured the kind of late victory he loves and which opens up a whole new world. With just three minutes and the final reserves of energy remaining, a wonderful moment of skill from Jude Bellingham found Eduardo Camavinga and set them on one last run. Camavinga sprinted free, skilfully slipped Pau Cubarsí and pulled back for Kylian Mbappé to provide the finish, a little bit of history written. “The world that loves football will have stopped to watch this and they won’t have gone disappointed; this was two teams that played to win,” Mourinho said. It had been an intense, breathless ride, a proper battle, and it was his team who won it. Arriving right on time, Mbappé scored his second to make it 2-1, the Camp Nou falling quiet and their team given no time to react. They had drawn level after Mbappé’s opener, Raphinha scoring, but could not do it again. Continue reading...

La Liga updates, kick-off 8pm (GMT) Live scoreboard | And you can email Niall Richard Hirst asks: “Can we add this to Peter’s bingo card? … Points out he’s only been the manager for 35 seconds.” A fair shout. Peter Oh has prepared a José Mourinho bingo card for tonight’s game … Continue reading...

Buildup to Aston Villa v Man City, José Mourinho on Madrid-Barça and news that Bayern boss Vincent Kompany will be missing ‘for weeks’ Just under three hours to go before Villa Park witnesses people defiantly waving inflatable bananas while being called cheats. Taha Hashim looks at Aston Villa v Man City in the second entry of this week’s, count ‘em, ‘10 Things’. “It was five months ago but it feels a lot longer. When these two sides met in May to finish the season, the contest doubled as Pep Guardiola’s leaving party after 10 years in the job and twice as many trophies, an era now laden with asterisks. It must be surreal for Aston Villa supporters, too. Their 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium, inspired by two goals from Ollie Watkins to complete a league double over City, came only four days after their Europa League triumph in Istanbul, where Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía were the scorers. Buendía is the only one left in claret and blue as Unai Emery builds a new side.” Jamie Jackson’s latest piece listing supposed solutions for MUFC fails to mention the only one that will really work long term. Relegation, preferably “doing a Leicester”, in order to finally get rid of the Glazers. As long as they are there, nothing will meaningfully change. Even if we never got back to being “elite”, at least I might be able to love my club once again. Continue reading...

Ahead of his first Clásico since returning to Real Madrid, José Mourinho stated that previous results do not matter as he discussed the game.

FC Barcelona hosts Real Madrid at Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday for the first Clásico of the season under returning coach José Mourinho. Team news available here.