Telegraph:
Chelsea defeat Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan in pre-season friendly
By Jason Burt at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena
Goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard – two of the players closest to Jose Mourinho – earned Chelsea victory over their former manager’s present club Inter Milan on a balmy evening in southern California.
It was also a sweet moment for Carlo Ancelotti, who two matches into his reign as Chelsea manager, defeated Mourinho, who he clashed with at Milan last season.
Chelsea primed for Mourinho reunion Mourinho has attempted to take both Drogba and Lampard with him to Inter since he took over last summer and both showed why. Drogba struck early, a low shot, an instinctive finish, while Lampard coolly added a second-half penalty.
Chelsea have now won both of their pre-season matches in the United States with ease, having also defeated Seattle Sounders last Saturday. This was a more impressive performance, given the calibre of the opponents with Chelsea appearing far more advanced in their preparations and fitness for the new campaign.
In fairness Inter are a week behind in their training – Serie A kicking off later than the Premier League – with Mourinho in the process of re-shaping his squad although it was a surprise to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic making a second-half substitute’s appearance given he is, the manager hopes, being sold to Barcelona in return for £38 million, Samuel Eto’o and Alex Hleb on loan for a season. A pretty special deal for the Special One. Ibrahimovic fluffed his one chance, steering a shot into the side-netting from a corner.
Ancelotti is still hoping to make additions to his squad, he is searching for a “creative” player, and there were further signs as to how he wants his team to play. Chelsea again fielded two strikers – a different pair in each half – with a diamond in midfield although, this time, he shifted around the personnel.
With Michael Ballack having returned to England, to receive treatment for a toe injury, ruling him out of the rest of the tour and Yuri Zhirkov not yet eligible to play as the Russian international has still to receive a work permit, Ancelotti’s options were limited. But he started with four of the African players who had returned later for training after international commitments.
Lateness was a bit of a theme for this much-hyped game, the first of three Chelsea will complete as part of the so-called World Football Challenge. However the organisation was chaotic. Traffic around the stadium, and in the roads approaching it, was grid-locked for hours meaning thousands of fans missed the first-half. Even then there were large areas of the impressive bowl, the venue for the 1994 World Cup Final, that were empty even though tickets were at a premium after 60,000 tickets were sold two weeks. The official attendance – for a 90,000 plus stadium – was 81,224 but it appeared less.
After Drogba’s 11th minute goal – goalkeeper Vid Belec should perhaps have done better to block the shot – Lampard almost added a second with a thumping drive from 25 yards that flew narrowly wide. Chelsea were rarely under threat as Inter laboured and they added a second soon into the second half when Daniel Sturridge, who again looked assured and dangerous, shot only for it to be diverted by Nicolas Burdisso – who is one of the Inter players to have been offered to Chelsea as part of the deal to try and sign Ricardo Carvalho and Deco - with an outstretched arm. Lampard sent the ball low in the net.
By now Mourinho had grown irritated. He switched his team around into a more attacking formation and they began to press, but didn’t threaten to get back into the game while Chelsea nearly added a third only for Belec to smother his shot from Sturridge’s astute pass. For Ancelotti it was a satisfying evening, defeating the Italian champions, the city neighbours of the club he has recently left, and, more pertinently, Mourinho. Chelsea now travel back east, to Baltimore, to face AC Milan on Friday.
Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Cech (Turnbull, 63); Ivanovic (Mancienne, 63), Terry, Carvalho (Alex, h-t), A Cole (Hutchinson, 79); Mikel; Essien (Belletti, 63), Lampard (Di Santo, 88), Malouda (Deco, h-t); Kalou (Anelka, h-t), Drogba (Sturridge, h-t).
Inter Milan (4-4-2): Belec; Santon, Cordoba, Burdisso, Chivu (Mancini, 59); Zanetti, Cambiasso (Krhin, 80), Vieira, Motta (Ibrahimovic, 59); Obi (Milito, h-t), Balotelli (Quaresma, 80).
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Mail:
Chelsea 2 Inter 0:
Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard on target as Blues give old boss Jose Mourinho a lesson
Slick Chelsea dominated former boss Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan at the Rose Bowl to get their World Football Challenge campaign off to a winning start in Pasadena.
Goals from Didier Drogba in the 11th minute and a Frank Lampard penalty just after half-time gave Chelsea the victory over the Italian champions in front of 81,224 fans.
The impressive nature of the Blues' performance more than the scoreline, however, will have delighted new head coach Carlo Ancelotti, especially coming so soon into the ex-AC Milan chief's first pre-season campaign and against his former cross-city rivals.Mourinho, facing the club he led to two Premier League titles during his three seasons at Stamford Bridge between 2004-07, had seen his Inter team open its campaign with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Mexico's Club America on Sunday.Chelsea, meanwhile, had warmed up with a 2-0 win over Major Seattle Sounders theprevious day but had since lost German midfielder Michael Ballack to a broken toe.
Led once again by John Terry in central defence with Ricardo Carvalho, Chelsea fans at the Rose Bowl saw their African players start for the first time in pre-season, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien returning to midfield with Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou in attack.It was the central defenders, though, who had Chelsea's first sights on the Inter goal, Florent Malouda receiving a short corner on the left and crossing for Carvalho to head over the bar at the near post in the second minute and Terry heading from the resultant Malouda corner from the right.Chelsea were dominant throughout the opening half and Drogba opened the lead inthe 11th minute, receiving a short pass from Lampard with his back to goal, turning and shooting unimpeded from 20 yards, the ball bouncing over Inter Milan keeper Vid Belec's outstretched left hand and into the bottom corner of the goal.
The Londoners continued to play with purpose and fluency, highlighted in the 16th minute when Lampard and Branislav Ivanovic exchanged a one-two down the right, the Serbian full-back advancing to the byline and centering for Drogba whose shot was straight at a grateful Belec.Trailing 1-0 at the break, Inter's first real chance came as Chelsea adjusted to the five changes made by Ancelotti at half-time.
With Carvalho making way for Alex in defence, the incoming centre-back gave theball away to Mario Balotelli on halfway immediately following the restart and the through ball found Diego Milito who cut inside Terry but was blocked at his feet by Petr Cech, the Chelsea keeper making his first meaningful contribution of the game.
Daniel Sturridge, who scored on his debut at Seattle, and Nicolas Anelka had replaced Drogba and Kalou and they quickly caused problems. Deco, on for Malouda, sent Sturridge clear in the box in the 48th minute and when his cross from the left was blocked by Ivan Cordoba's hand, Lampard was given the chance to add to his goal scored against the Sounders, converting the penalty, right footed into the bottom corner.Ancelotti made further changes in the 64th minute, taking off Cech, Essien and Ivanovic for Ross Turnbull, Juliano Belletti and Michael Mancienne, who was called straight into the action, blocking a Balotelli bicycle kick on the six-yard line after Inter sub Zlatan Ibrahimovic had crossed from the right.Late substitute Franco Di Santo nearly added a third for the Londoners in stoppage time, taking a delicate Deco chip over the top on his chest and shooting right-footed over the bar.
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Guardian:
Chelsea loosen the shackles as Carlo Ancelotti's forward thinking bears fruitJose Mourinho introduced the conservative concept of 4-3-3 to Chelsea but his Inter had no answer to Ancelotti's striking pair
It is dangerous to assume too much from pre-season encounters, particularly when a club's newly appointed manager is still gauging the strengths and weaknesses of his recently inherited squad. Yet, after comfortable wins against Seattle Sounders and now Internazionale, some insights have been gleaned into Carlo Ancelotti's thinking for the season ahead.
The slick passing in Pasadena caught the eye, an apparent willingness to use a passer like Deco rather than merely a tackler at the foot of a midfield diamond also noted, yet most intriguing of all may be his apparent willingness to begin games with a pair of strikers. That is hardly a revolutionary concept, but it still represents a move away from the 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1 or 4-5-1 combinations that have steadily crept more and more into a Premier League where failure, either at top of bottom, is simply not an option. For all that the defensive midfield shield remains, whether it be Deco, Michael Ballack or John Mikel Obi, Ancelotti's forward thinking feels almost bold.
Admittedly, either the Major League Soccer side overcome on Saturday nor Jose Mourinho's Inter, a team who laboured behind Chelsea in their pre-season preparations, offered much defensive surety to frustrate a paired strike force or bite deeper on the counter-attack. Whether Ancelotti begins with two up top in the Premier League remains to be seen, yet the Italian, hardly a regular selector of two out-and-out forwards while with Milan, seems set on the idea. "I would like to play with two strikers because we can put more zonal pressing," said Ancelotti. "I want to follow this way."
To that end, three combinations of strikers have been used to date. The Sounders were pierced twice while Daniel Sturridge and Nicolas Anelka, perhaps not the most natural pairing but full of slippery running, strutted their stuff in front of a midfield diamond. Franco di Santo and Claudio Pizarro replaced them at the interval, with Andriy Shevchenko employed on the right of midfield. Neither the Peruvian or the Ukrainian is likely to start the new campaign at Stamford Bridge, while Di Santo may yet move elsewhere to gain first-team experience.
Then came the forward-line against Inter. Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou have spent their summers on World Cup duty with Ivory Coast, preventing their participation earlier for their club side, but they linked up cleverly here against Mourinho's Inter. The Italians may have been off the pace with their fitness yet their snarl remained, but neither forward had his focus blurred. Drogba's curled opener 11 minutes in, the ball fizzing through Vid Belec's weak flap, offered a reminder of his quality. Kalou has never scored the goals initially anticipated of him, particularly after his prolific spell in Holland, but he linked up cleverly and drifted wide when required, providing width when neither full-back could spring up the flank.
Sturridge, a player of clear ability, won a penalty from Ivan Cordoba just four minutes after joining Anelka in the fray, the spot kick dispatched by Lampard who revelled again at the tip of the midfield diamond. "These matches are used to try new situations," offered Ancelotti as a reminder that this is a period of fitness work and experimentation, and not necessarily a true indicator of things to come. Regardless, to have beaten his arch rival Mourinho, a manager who worked with 10 of Chelsea's starters during his three-year spell in west London and invariably employed his trusty 4-3-3, must have offered the Italian some private satisfaction. So far, so good.
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