Jude Bellingham Shines in Real Madrid's Narrow Victory Over Espanyol
Jude Bellingham needed nine minutes to remind La Liga exactly who runs the show.
At the RCDE Stadium, with the noise still settling, the England midfielder rose above everyone to glance in a superb header from an Arda Guler free-kick. One run, one leap, one ruthless finish. Real Madrid were in front, Mourinho’s new era seemingly cruising from the first act.
Espanyol, though, refused to play the role of opening-day victims.
Shaken by Madrid’s ferocious press, they initially struggled to breathe, let alone build. Yet out of nowhere, Clemens Riedel almost ripped the game open with a 30-yard rocket. Thibaut Courtois had to spring full length to claw it away, a reminder that this was no procession.
That moment jolted the home side awake. A brief stoppage for treatment to a cut above Dean Huijsen’s eye broke Madrid’s rhythm, and Espanyol quietly grew into the contest. Passes started to stick. Challenges bit a little harder. The crowd sensed it.
Equaliser
On the half-hour, they got their reward.
Javi Hernandez sliced through Madrid’s right flank with a brilliant solo surge, dancing to the byline before cutting the ball back with precision. Alex Calatrava arrived with perfect timing and swept his finish past Courtois. From control to chaos for Madrid in a single move.
The equaliser rattled Mourinho’s team. Their passing lost its edge, their shape loosened. Espanyol suddenly looked the sharper side, and Real were fortunate not to trail at the break when Roberto Fernandez met a cross in front of an open goal and somehow made a mess of the header. The stadium groaned; Madrid exhaled.
All eyes then turned to Kylian Mbappe.
Making his league debut under Mourinho, Mbappe hunted space, but Marko Dmitrovic refused to be intimidated by the occasion or the name on the back of the shirt. The Serbian goalkeeper spread himself superbly to block Mbappe’s first clear sight of goal with his legs, then dropped low to smother a drilled effort moments later. Mbappe’s movement was there. The finish, not yet.
Second Half
As the second half wore on and the game tightened, Mourinho went to his old ally: the bench.
On came record signing Yan Diomande, tasked with injecting urgency and chaos. It almost worked instantly. A deflected cross fell kindly to Federico Valverde on the edge of the box, and the Uruguayan unleashed a thunderous strike that smashed the outside of the post. Dmitrovic was rooted. Inches from a statement goal.
Madrid’s pressure built. The temperature rose.
Bellingham again climbed highest from a Guler corner, his header this time cannoning off the crossbar. Espanyol’s penalty area became a siege zone, white shirts circling, the home side hanging on with everything they had.
Yet for all that dominance, Madrid’s cutting edge kept misfiring. Ten minutes from time, Mbappe summed up the frustration, latching onto a half-volley and watching it skew harmlessly toward the corner flag. The away end groaned; Mourinho’s stare hardened.
Espanyol could smell a point. Maybe more. Time ticked into stoppage, the upset within reach.
Then came the punch that has defined so many Mourinho nights.
In the first minute of added time, chaos broke loose in the Espanyol box after Mbappe was crowded out by a swarm of defenders. The ball spilled loose, and substitute Espi reacted fastest, thundering his finish into the net. One swing, one roar, one unforgettable moment for a player who may never hit a ball more sweetly.
Madrid, far from fluent, had stolen it.
The 2-1 victory extends Real Madrid’s remarkable run of avoiding defeat in their opening La Liga fixture to 18 straight seasons. For Jose Mourinho, it preserves an equally striking personal streak: seven wins from seven in managerial debuts.
The performance made one thing clear. This Madrid side is still a work in progress, its new stars not yet fully in sync. But on a hot night at the RCDE Stadium, the “Special One” didn’t need perfection.
He just needed that old, familiar feeling of winning late.
