Mbappé’s younger brother sent off for dropping rival with elbow
The Mbappé brothers dominated the opening day of the Champions League season with a hero and villain double act grabbing the headlines.
Real Madrid megastar Kylian Mbappé scored the opening goal in a pulsating 2-1 win over Inter Milan that was marred by what Steve Wilson called a “catastrophic” goalkeeping error from Josep Martínez.
Martínez gifted Real their second, attempting to dribble past Federico Valverde inside his goal area and allowing the Madrid captain to poke the ball home.
Inter dominated the contest, controlling more than 64 per cent of possession.
“I think we played a great first half, but I don’t deserve the MVP award today – (goalkeeper Thibalt) Courtois deserved it because he saved us with an extraordinary performance,” Valverde said.
Before kick off in Spain’s capital, Luis Figo presented Mbappé with an award for scoring the most goals in last season’s Champions League.
France’s captain had also been torched by World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry for making a “childish and pathetic” sales pitch to Ballon d’Or voters ahead of the October ceremony in London.
Mbappé’s younger brother, Ethan, was certainly guilty of some petulance in the north of France.
The 19-year-old Lille midfielder was all smiles after he provided a nice assist for Ayase Ueda’s opening goal against Real Betis.
But it all went pear shaped in the second half.
Ethan was sent off after officials spotted an elbow to the face of Betis defender Natan in an off-the-ball clash.
Natan made the most of it with a theatrical fall, but a red card was the only option.
It was his first red card as a professional and Betis came-from-behind to win 3-2.
Ethan Mbappe. Getty Images
In Portugal, Erling Haaland continued his outrageous goalscoring ways with both Manchester City goals in a 2-0 win over Porto.
Haaland has scored 59 goals in 59 Champions League games.
That puts the 26-year-old seventh on the all-time list behind Cristiano Ronaldo (140 in 183), Lionel Messi (129 in 163), Robert Lewandowski (109 in 144), Karim Benzema (90 in 152), Raul (71 in 142) and Kylian Mbappé (71 in 99).
City controlled possession against Porto and finished with 20 shots, including 10 on target, while the hosts failed to register a single attempt.
Enzo Maresca’s side had more than 70 per cent possession and forced Porto’s goalkeeper into six saves before halftime but had to wait until after the break for the breakthrough.
Haaland broke the deadlock two minutes after the restart, heading Enzo Fernández’s lofted cross into the top corner.
He added his second goal a minute into stoppage time, finding the bottom corner from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s pass.
Earlier on Wednesday (AEST), Aston Villa survived a second-half surge from Club Brugge to open their campaign with a 3-2 away win, with Pau Torres providing two assists for Unai Emery’s side.
Torres set up John McGinn to put Villa ahead in the 11th minute but Hugo Vetlesen equalised for the hosts eight minutes later.
Villa responded swiftly, with Emiliano Buendia restoring their lead from a Joao Gomes assist before Nicolas Jackson made it 3-1 just before halftime, Torres again supplying the final pass.
Brugge dominated after the break and Nicolo Tresoldi pulled a goal back with a penalty in the 61st minute, but Villa protected their advantage to secure all three points. - with Reuters
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