The Champions League group phase kicked off in style on Tuesday, with two of Europe’s traditional heavyweights delivering contrasting but equally compelling statements.

Manchester City grind out a professional win in Portugal, while Real Madrid survived a Bernabeu battle against Jose Mourinho’s former side.

Erling Haaland struck twice as Manchester City began their campaign with a 2-0 win at Porto, continuing his relentless start to life under new boss Enzo Maresca.

For long stretches, City’s dominance threatened to go unrewarded, with Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa producing a string of brilliant saves to deny Haaland a first-half hat-trick — including a stunning double stop off the back of slick build-up play from Ayyoub Bouaddi and Phil Foden.

Costa’s heroics could only hold for so long. Two minutes into the second half, Haaland finally broke through, nodding home Enzo Fernandez’s cross with just enough precision to beat a wrong-footed Costa.

Porto responded with intent rather than surrender, and City — guilty of easing off — were given a couple of scares, with Gianluigi Donnarumma bailed out by the offside flag after nearly conceding a certain penalty.

But Haaland made sure there’d be no repeat of City’s nervy late finish against newly-promoted Coventry at the weekend, slotting home a stoppage-time second from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross to seal the win.

This was his 59th Champions League goal in as many appearances, and the strike that moved him to 167 goals in a City shirt, third on the club’s all-time list.

It capped a big night for Maresca too, whose side backed a club-record £460 million summer spend with a composed continental opener, with new £85.6 million signing Bouaddi impressing on his full debut.

Across the continent, Real Madrid needed a nervy final act to see off Inter Milan 2-1 in a pulsating Bernabeu opener.

This was a fixture with real emotional weight for Jose Mourinho, who led Inter to Champions League glory in 2010 at the same stadium, just days before taking the Real Madrid job for the first time.

Brought back by club president Florentino Perez to end two trophyless seasons and a string of early European exits, Mourinho got his side firing early.

Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring in the 14th minute after Inter’s Curtis Jones and Yann Bisseck combined for a defensive howler.

Brahim Diaz slipped the ball through for Mbappe to finish clinically. Madrid doubled their lead soon after when Inter goalkeeper Josep Martinez dallied on the ball under pressure from a charging Fede Valverde, who nicked it away and rolled it into an empty net.

Martinez atoned in spectacular fashion before the break, somehow denying Jude Bellingham from point-blank range after Mbappe had already forced a low save.

The Spaniard kept Inter in the contest with further stops from Mbappe and Diaz after the restart, while Thibaut Courtois matched him save for save at the other end, repelling Marcus Thuram, Lautaro Martinez and Alessandro Bastoni in the first half alone.

Inter’s resistance finally paid off with 13 minutes left, Carlos Augusto smashing home from Lautaro’s cross to set up a tense finish.

But Courtois had the final word, beating away a deflected Henrikh Mkhitaryan effort to see out the win.

Full results for Tuesday: AEK 1-0 LASK; Club Brugge 2-3 Aston Villa; Real Madrid 2-1 Inter Milan; LOSC 2-3 Betis; Porto 0-2 Manchester City; Dortmund 3-2 Villareal

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