Mourinho returns to the Bernabéu to face Inter, the club that carried him to Champions League glory in 2010

There's one image the Bernabéu never forgot: José Mourinho wrapped in an embrace with Marco Materazzi, both of them in tears next to the Inter team bus, while the rest of the squad got ready to head back to Milan with the Champions League trophy in hand. That was May 22, 2010. Sixteen years later, that same stadium brings the same central figures back together, though this time from opposite sides of the touchline.

On Tuesday, September 8, Real Madrid hosts Inter Milan in the opening matchday of the Champions League league phase, with Mourinho now installed as the home team's coach. Kickoff is set for 4:00 PM (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay time) and 2:00 PM (Ecuador, Colombia and Peru time), broadcast via Disney+'s Premium Plan across South America.

To understand why this matchup is generating so much buzz, you have to go back to that final. Inter arrived in Madrid having eliminated Chelsea and Barcelona along the way, with the Serie A title and Coppa Italia already secured. Only the Champions League was missing, a trophy the club had been chasing since 1965. They got it with a 2-0 win over Bayern Munich, with Diego Milito scoring twice, completing the treble and giving Javier Zanetti the chance to lift the European Cup in Madrid.

What few people knew that night was that Mourinho had already made up his mind about his future. "I hadn't signed a contract, but I had already made the decision," he admitted years later about his move to Real Madrid. That's why, once the celebrations on the field wrapped up, he avoided traveling back to Italy with the team. He was afraid that a massive send-off at San Siro would make him change his mind.

If I had gone back to Milan with the team, if I had walked into a packed San Siro, I don't think I would have gone to Real MadridJosé Mourinho

His plan to slip away quietly fell apart the moment he saw Materazzi by the bus. There was no strategy that could hold up in that moment: he got out of the car and the two fell into an embrace that ended with both of them in tears. "I cried because I was saying goodbye," Mourinho later explained, calling that way of leaving "the best way to leave a team and a job."

A rival with its sights set elsewhere

On the other side is an Inter side looking to focus on what's ahead rather than what's behind. Lautaro Martínez, the team's captain, was clear in the pre-match press conference about what the Champions League means to the squad today. "It's a goal. Like I always say, we all dream, we dream about everything. But it's not an obsession," he said, also noting that last season Inter was eliminated early by Bodo/Glimt.

Asked directly about the history surrounding the matchup, the Argentine forward didn't dodge the question but preferred to keep the focus on the present. "I know the history very well, what happened. But today we're far removed from that," he said, before acknowledging Mourinho's impact at the club: "He's a coach who won important titles at this club. All the respect in the world for him."

Regarding the opponent, Lautaro didn't hide his respect for Real Madrid's level, singling out Kylian Mbappé as the main threat, calling him "one of the best forwards in the world." "We're facing a great team, with a lot of champions and very high level players, but we have our own weapons too," he concluded.

The Bernabéu was, in 2010, the stage for both a coronation and a farewell. Now it once again puts Mourinho face to face with the club that shaped him as a Champions League winner, though this time wearing white, with history as their only remaining common ground.