Mbappé hat-trick lifts Real Madrid past Real Sociedad as Mourinho returns to Bernabéu

On a late August evening at the Bernabéu, Kylian Mbappé offered the clearest answer yet to the question that had followed his arrival at Real Madrid: whether expectation and reality could finally meet. His hat-trick against Real Sociedad was not merely a scoreline but a declaration — of a player finding his place, a club reaffirming its ambitions, and a stadium that has always known how to hold two stories at once, as José Mourinho watched from the opposing dugout, returning to a house he once commanded.