Real Madrid host Inter Milan in an early Champions League final, with Mbappe and Lautaro face to face

Some group stage matches feel like an early final. This is one of them. Real Madrid hosts Inter Milan on Tuesday in Matchday 1 of the Champions League's new league phase, and the fixture brings together the two clubs with the most European Cup titles among this season's entrants: the Spanish giants with 15 titles and the Nerazzurri with 3. No other pairing on this opening matchday features two former champions of the tournament.

Both sides arrive off solid starts domestically, which have helped paper over, at least for now, two European campaigns both clubs would rather forget. Inter opened the defense of its Scudetto with wins over Monza and Cagliari under new coach Cristian Chivu, but the sting of last season's Champions League run still lingers: Inter was knocked out in the playoff round by Bodo/Glimt, which won both legs for a combined 5-2 aggregate. To rebuild, Inter shopped heavily in the Premier League, bringing in Djed Spence, Curtis Jones and John Stones, the latter a key piece of Manchester City's 2023 treble winning squad.

On the other side, Real Madrid finds itself in a different place but is likewise trying to move past a difficult year. The Xabi Alonso experiment ended badly, with a fractured locker room that led to his January exit, and interim coach Alvaro Arbeloa fared no better, with Madrid eliminated by Bayern Munich in a wild 6-4 aggregate quarterfinal. Now Jose Mourinho begins his second stint at the club, backed by new signings Marc Cucurella, Bernardo Silva and Yan Diomande, and a perfect start through the first three matchdays of LaLiga that has fans feeling optimistic.

Mbappe and Lautaro face off for the first time in club colors

Beyond the collective clash, there's an individual matchup worth watching: this will be the first time Kylian Mbappe and Lautaro Martinez, the on field leaders of their respective teams, face each other at club level. Their only previous meeting is hard to top for drama: the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, where the Frenchman scored a hat trick and became only the second player to do so in a World Cup final, while Lautaro came on off the bench. Even so, the title went to Argentina after a 3-3 draw and a penalty shootout.

That on field meeting carried extra weight after comments Mbappe had made months before the World Cup, when he said South American soccer "isn't as advanced" as the European game. Lautaro fired back without holding back:

I saw what he said, but Argentina and Brazil have players of huge stature, of a very high level. Brazil, like us, has most of its players in Europe. I thought it was an unfair comment.Lautaro Martinez

The head to head record between the two clubs in the European Cup and Champions League stands at 13 previous meetings, with 7 wins for Real Madrid, 5 for Inter and one draw. But the most significant chapter belongs to the Italian side: the 1964 final in Vienna, the first time the two clubs met, when Helenio Herrera's Inter beat a Real Madrid side featuring Di Stefano, Puskas and Gento by a score of 3-1, thanks to goals from Luis Suarez and Sandro Mazzola. The clubs met again in the semifinals in 1966 and 1981, with Real Madrid winning both times, and in the 1967 quarterfinals, which Inter won.