Mourinho Faces His Treble Past with a Decimated Squad at the Bernabéu

Real Madrid will be without Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Güler and Bernardo Silva for Tuesday’s Champions League league-phase opener against Inter Milan, with all three ruled out through suspension, according to Get Spanish Football News. The trio are serving bans carried over from the 2025/26 campaign after each was shown a red card in their final European appearance last season, the report notes.

José Mourinho’s midfield options are further thinned by the suspensions, which come on top of three separate injury absences. Rodrygo, Éder Militão and Ferland Mendy remain unavailable for selection, leaving the head coach with six senior players missing for the visit of Inter. Los Blancos have been finalising preparations at Valdebebas, as detailed in Football España’s coverage of Real Madrid’s training session ahead of the fixture. Mourinho managed Inter Milan to an historic domestic and European treble in 2010 before departing for his first stint at Real Madrid.

Real Madrid open this season’s Champions League campaign at the Santiago Bernabéu, where they welcome reigning Serie A champions Inter Milan on Tuesday evening for the first of their league-phase fixtures. The report describes all three suspensions as carrying over from last season’s European run, though it does not specify the disciplinary incidents that produced the bans. Referee assignment details for the match are covered separately in Football España’s report on the officials for Real Madrid vs Inter, while the visit follows a testing weekend outlined in the site’s coverage of Real Madrid’s defeat to Real Betis.

Mourinho can shift Jude Bellingham into a deeper central role alongside Aurélien Tchouaméni, rely on Federico Valverde to cover right-flank duties, and call up Castilla academy players to complete the bench, according to tactical adjustments available to the head coach. The 36-team UEFA Champions League Swiss-system league phase penalises dropped home points against top-pot seeds like Inter, severely handicapping a club’s chances of securing an automatic top-8 knockout berth.