Guinness International Champions Cup: AC Milan 0 vs Chelsea 2

Jose Mourinho's men extended their unbeaten run in preseason and set up a mouthwatering 2013 Guinness International Champions Cup final match with former employers, Real Madrid, at the SunLife Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Wednesday. This recent victory came against 7-times champions of Europe, AC Milan, at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.


Match squads for the two teams were announced just prior to kickoff. There were no surprises except that Kevin De Bruyne, who earlier on looked unlikely to play a part in the game, was included by Mourinho in the starting XI. Demba Ba started upfront at the expense of the in-form Romelu Lukaku and the returning Fernando Torres. Mourinho must have been trying to rotate the squad and give everyone a chance to prove his worth to the team. His tactics also serves to keep the entire squad fresh, injury-free and match fit.

The game kicked off behind schedule, but that did not stop the Blues from dominating proceedings in the early moments of the game. Oscar, Kevin De Bruyne and Branislav Ivanovic were all guilty of missing a couple of good chances in the opening 20 minutes.  Kevin De Bruyne, who was making a return from the injury he sustained during Chelsea's preseason tour of Asia, made amends for his early misses by scoring the only goal of the first half

Kevin De Bryune scores against AC Milan, New Jersey

in the 29th minute of play. There was a Belgian connection in that goal as Eden Hazard bulldozed his way through the Milan defence and fed the ball to a perfectly positioned De Bruyne. All he needed to do was to slot the ball neatly past AC Milan goalkeeper, Abbaiti, into the back of the net.

After that, Chelsea continued to maintain possession deep inside Milan's half and were looking for more opportunities to carve open Milan's defence. But the scores remained 1-0 in favour of Chelsea as the players went in for the halftime break.

A host of half-time changes were made by Chelsea and AC Milan. "Super" Mario made way for Andrea Petagna after a subdued first half. The Blues brought in captain John Terry, Fernando Torres, Ramires, Juan Mata, Ashley Cole, Victor Moses and Mark Schwarzer for the second half. The wholesale substitutions threatened to change the course of the match, but it was not to be. Milan had the ball, but we had the bite. John Terry nearly scored with a rare acrobatic volley minutes into the second half. A spirited and rejuvenated Torres gave the Milan defence a lot to worry about. He was all over them until he got replaced by Romelu Lukaku in the 85th minute.

The substitution was to a good effect. Andre Schurrle, another player who was earlier on ruled out because of illness, had the ball in the back of the net in added time thanks to an exceptional chipped cross from Nigerian export, Victor Moses. The German volleyed with a beautiful technique into the net with his first ever goal for Chelsea to seal the match. This victory makes it a perfect 5/5 for the Blues and the returning Jose Mourinho. Wednesday's Guinness International Champions Cup will be between Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Tops of the Match: The best players in the game for me were Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Victor Moses and Andre Schurrle (for that nice goal). Oscar and Torres didn't play badly too.