Real Madrid Imposes Victory as Mourinho Builds a Growing Team
Real Madrid didn’t just win. They imposed themselves, then let José Mourinho do what he does best: frame the story around a team being built for something bigger.
Under fierce heat and a demanding pre-season schedule, Madrid brushed aside their opponents with a 3–0 victory, the work largely done before the hour and the message from the touchline crystal clear — this is a squad being pushed hard, and responding.
Mourinho’s demanding summer
After the match, Mourinho cut a satisfied but focused figure. He refused to single out individuals, insisting the story is the collective.
“At this moment, it’s difficult to talk individually because we are growing as a team,” he told Realmadrid TV. “Here, we only have good players, very good players, and very, very, very good players. From the combination of the work of these players, we have to create a very, very good team. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think we’re taking the right steps to achieve it.”
Those “steps” are not gentle ones. Double sessions, relentless intensity, and training in punishing temperatures have defined Madrid’s preparation.
“I’m also very happy with those who arrived last,” Mourinho said. “It’s not easy to jump straight into high-intensity training like what we are doing. It’s not easy for them to have double sessions in the morning and afternoon, because they train in the morning with the group and in the afternoon with the small group that joined now. With incredible heat. The 5 p.m. training session is really tough, and they arrived with a top mentality.”
That mentality is already bleeding into matchdays.
Mbappé pounces, Huijsen rises, Espí finishes
Madrid seized control almost immediately. In the sixth minute, Kylian Mbappe punished a casual back pass from Schallenberg, racing through and beating Loris Karius to open the scoring. One mistake, one flash of acceleration, and the tone was set.
The second came from a set piece. On 20 minutes, Arda Güler delivered a precise corner and Huijsen attacked it, rising above his marker to head home and double the advantage. Madrid were two up and cruising, their dominance underlined by the ease with which they turned pressure into goals.
After the break, the changes came, but the control didn’t slip. Substitute Espí added the third in the 57th minute, timing his run perfectly to meet Carreras’ cross and seal the victory. Clinical, simple, and enough for Mourinho to shift his attention from the scoreline to the stopwatch.
Minutes, data and bodies
This stage of pre-season is as much about conditioning as it is about results, and Mourinho made that clear with how he managed his stars. Mbappe and Konate were each given 45 minutes, a solid half of high-intensity work. Jude Bellingham, Cucurella, and Diomande were eased in with 30 minutes apiece, including debuts for the latter two, both introduced on the hour.
“Then, the question of 45 minutes for Mbappe and Konate or the 30 minutes for Bellingham, Cucurella, and Diomande are things that we analyze scientifically with the data we have,” Mourinho explained.
He wasn’t just talking about GPS numbers and fitness reports.
“And with the most important factor, which is the player’s own experience, the knowledge the player has of their own body. And I think we’ve reached this good week, which is the next one, in a very acceptable condition for this moment in the season. Let’s go for it.”
The result will fade quickly from memory. The way Madrid are being driven through this brutal pre-season will not. The question now is simple: with this workload, this talent, and this manager, just how sharp will they be when the real games start?
