MILAN — Jose Mourinho ‘s second stint in charge of Real Madrid got off to a winning start as his team snatched a 2-1 victory at Espanyol.
In Italy, Inter Milan kicked off its title defense with a dominant 4-1 win over newly-promoted Monza in Serie A.
Elsewhere in Europe, Manchester United lost 2-0 at newly-promoted Hull in the Premier League, while in France, last season´s runner-up Lens comfortably beat Auxerre 5-2.
Carlos Espi came off the bench to score a late winner for Madrid on his debut for the Spanish giant.
The 21-year-old Espi was one of the standouts of La Liga last season and Madrid reportedly paid Levante 25 million euros ($28 million) for him.
Espi was brought on in the 79th minute and scored 11 minutes later, pouncing after Kylian Mbappe had been knocked off the ball and firing past Marko Dmitrovic.
Jude Bellingham headed in a free kick in the ninth minute and almost scored in similar fashion early in the second half but saw his header fingertipped onto the crossbar by Dmitrovic, AP reported.
Alex Calatrava had scored a deserved equaliser for the Espanyol in the 30th minute, sweeping the ball past Thibaut Courtois for his first La Liga goal.
Mourinho was hired in June and officially took over in July at the start of the preseason.
He is back for a second stint with Madrid some 13 years after he left the club. He was in charge from 2010-13, winning a Spanish league and a Copa del Rey.
It was Madrid’s first match of the season as they and defending champion Barcelona sat out the first weekend because they had players return later from the World Cup.
Inter forward Pio Esposito had a breakout season last campaign and the 21-year-old started right where he left off for the Nerazzurri.
An impressive backheel flick from Esposito put the hosts 3-1 up in early in the second half, either side of Inter goals from Piotr Zieli´nski and Yann Bisseck.
Inter – which dominated Italian soccer last season, winning both the league and the cup in Cristian Chivu’s first year in charge – got off to a great start when a fierce long-range shot from Hakan Calhanoglu gave it the lead in the sixth minute.
But sloppy defending for Monza´s equaliser showed just why Inter signed England defenders Djed Spence and John Stones in the offseason.
Stones came on late on while Spence was in the stands along with England teammate Curtis Jones, who completed his move to Inter on Friday.
Last year’s runner-up, Napoli, won 2-0 at Genoa thanks to two late goals, from Kevin De Bruyne and Antonio Vergara.
Como – which surprised with a fourth-place finish last season – was held to a 1-1 draw at Udinese.
Hull made a dream return to the Premier League after a nine-year absence, beating Manchester United 2-0 to puncture any preseason optimism surrounding the 20-time champions.
First-half goals from Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy at set-pieces consigned United to a tepid loss away to a team that was promoted via the second-tier Championship playoffs at the end of last season and is widely expected to be among the relegation candidates.
Tottenham, one of the biggest spenders in Europe this summer with $300 million – and counting – of new players in its squad, was overwhelmed in a 3-0 defeat at Brentford.
Auxerre gave away two penalties and also played most of the match with 10 men after defender Christ Makosso was shown a straight red card for a foul on Abadallah Sima in the 35th minute.
Florian Thauvin converted both penalties – the second one at the second time of asking after Auxerre goalkeeper Mamadou Diop saved the initial attempt but was off his line.
All of Lens goals, apart from Thauvin´s first 12th-minute penalty, came in the second half.
