Chelsea vs Inter Milan. International Champions Cup.
Singapore National Stadium.
Saturday 29 July 2017 16:44, UK
Chelsea ended their pre-season tour in defeat as Inter beat the Premier League champions 2-1 to win the International Champions Cup in Singapore.
Inter took the lead in controversial fashion in first-half stoppage time as Cesar Azpilicueta was penalised for a soft challenge on Stevan Jovetic inside the box. Jovetic saw his penalty saved by Thibaut Courtois, but he slammed home the rebound.
Manchester United target Ivan Perisic netted the second with a powerful low effort (53), before Geoffrey Kondogbia scored a bizarre own goal (74), somehow beating his own goalkeeper from 45 yards with a miscued passback.
Antonio Candreva almost opened the scoring for the Italian side early on, but his effort from the right of the box was kept out by a combination of David Luiz and goalkeeper Courtois.
Luiz then saw a free header blocked by the body of Milan Skriniar, but Inter were ahead late in the half.
Jovetic chested down the ball in the area before seemingly being dispossessed fairly by Azpilicueta, but the former Man City man went down under the challenge and received a penalty from referee Sukhbir Singh. Courtois saved to his left, but Inter reacted fastest to the rebound as Jovetic cleaned up.
There was more poor officiating after the break as Jovetic had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, but Inter got their second as Perisic's fierce effort from the left of the penalty area found the bottom corner past Courtois.
Inter sub Joao Mario should have made it 3-0 from Perisic's unselfish pass, but his low effort was saved by the boot of Courtois.
The game then turned Chelsea's way with just over 15 minutes remaining as Kondogbia's pass back to his own goal flew over Daniele Padelli's head and into the top left corner.
Michy Batshuayi then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside late on, but it ended 2-1 to Inter despite a late rally by the Blues.
Chelsea's pre-season programme has now finished, and they start competitive action at Wembley on Sunday against Arsenal in the Community Shield, before kicking off their Premier League campaign against Burnley on August 12.
