Welcome to The Euro Debrief, a new Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate rounds up some of the key stories from the latest matches across the continent. This week: Real Madrid made it three wins from three under Jose Mourinho with a 4-0 dismantling of Malaga in the Bernabeu. It has not been a daunting fixture list but there are signs that Mourinho has found a way to get the best from an increasingly stacked Madrid squad.
Trent Alexander-Arnold came in and produced a trademark assist, while Kylian Mbappe added to his midweek hat-trick against Real Sociedad with another goal here. But Jude Bellingham was the best player on the pitch against Malaga playing in that No 10 role. Bellingham has been shifted around during his Madrid career, Carlo Ancelotti taking advantage of his broad skillset to fit him in deeper, out wide or up front.
But Mourinho has been clear that he sees Bellingham playing off Mbappe and it is working very well. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Bellingham and Mourinho have hit it off. Back in 2024, the player did famously reveal that the coach was his mother's crush.
More seriously, they share the same intense drive, demanding everything from those around them. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Against Malaga, Arda Guler came on to score the fourth, with Yan Diomande and Bernardo Silva also introduced as substitutes from a bench that included Ibrahima Konate, Denzel Dumfries and last week's hero Carlos Espi too. The depth at Madrid now is apparent.
It will get harder, of course, but as pointed out in the pages of Marca, how many of these sort of games have Madrid messed up in recent years? So far so good for Mourinho. With no sign yet of the feared tension with Vinicius Junior, he has the key players purring.
Elsewhere, there was a useful win for Atletico Madrid to end Sevilla's unlikely winning run. Troy Parrott looked lively for Betis but they were battered by Levante. And the 37-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for a third game in a row for Deportivo.
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