José Mourinho won his first league game of his second Real Madrid spell with a goal from a substitute who has been at the club for three weeks. Espanyol 1-2 Real Madrid at the RCDE Stadium was not the comfortable evening the numbers describe, and for eighty minutes after Jude Bellingham's early header it looked like being one Madrid regretted.
Bellingham inside ten minutes, then a long wait
Arda Güler crossed, Bellingham headed in on nine minutes, and the game was set up to be straightforward. It never was. Madrid finished with 63 per cent of the ball, seven corners to none and 2.92 expected goals against Espanyol's 1.12. They also took two of their eight shots on target and needed the last minute of normal time to separate themselves from a side that spent the night defending its own box.
Dmitrović was the best player on the pitch
Marko Dmitrović made six saves. He beat away Denzel Dumfries on 21 minutes after Güler had picked him out, then stopped Kylian Mbappé with his foot in a one on one on 34. His save from Bellingham's header on 52 was the pick of them, and Mbappé put the rebound wide from close range. Federico Valverde hit the post from distance on 77. Thibaut Courtois, by contrast, was asked to make two saves all night. Espanyol's goalkeeper is the only reason this was ever in doubt.
Calatrava gave Madrid more trouble than anyone expected
Álex Calatrava equalised on 30 minutes, taking Javi Hernández's pass and finishing left footed past Courtois. He spent the rest of his evening in Vinícius Júnior's face. Both were booked after a confrontation on 32, and Calatrava then got away with a second yellow for a foul on Álvaro Carreras on 49. Edu Expósito was booked on 84 after another Vinícius intervention. Espanyol's plan was part football and part provocation, and it came close to working.
Espí settles it
Mourinho sent on Carlos Espí for Bernardo Silva on 80 minutes, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Eduardo Camavinga arriving at the same time. On 90, Mbappé worked an opening and Espí turned in the rebound from inside the six yard box. He is 21, he arrived from Levante this month for a fee reported at around 25 million euros on a deal to 2031, and he scored twenty goals in sixty six games there while being voted the division's best under 23 player last season. Madrid have found something quicker than they expected to.
What Mourinho takes from it
Three points, and a clear list of things to work on. Ibrahima Konaté, Dumfries and Bernardo Silva were all making competitive debuts and the back four conceded once. Bellingham started and scored after a summer of fitness questions. Güler was Madrid's most creative player and made the opening goal.
The problem is not chance creation. It is the eighty minutes between the ninth and the ninetieth, when a team with this attack could not find a second goal against a defence that was there to be broken. Mourinho was without Éder Militão, Rodrygo, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Ferland Mendy, Endrick and Raúl Asencio, which explains part of it, and Madrid still created enough to win by three.
They play their rearranged opening fixture against Real Sociedad at the Bernabéu on Wednesday. That is where we find out whether the ninetieth minute was a rescue or a habit.
