Oscar and Eden Hazard scored first-half goals as Chelsea beat Inter Milan 2-0 last night in their Guinness International Champions Cup quarterfinal. Chelsea will now meet AC Milan in the semi-finals next week while Inter will play Valencia.
Chelsea are undefeated under Jose Mourinho this preseason and has his side looking like title contenders this season. That is not the case at Inter where their manager Walter Mazzarri has his work cut out for him.
Chelsea were the favorites heading into the game as they are ahead of the Italian side in terms of preseason fitness, but it was Inter who started the brightest with a long range shot from Rodrigo Palacio in the 5th minute and a volley from Fredy Guarin that missed just wide of the left post in the 11th.
But less than two minutes later Chelsea went ahead after a great run by Moses created space for Oscar to beat Handanovic with a brilliant curled shot from the edge of the box.
Inter continued to create chances and Palacio hit a drive from 30 yards that Chelsea keeper Petr Cech had to stretch to tip over the bar in the 21st.
The game changed in the 29th minute when a horrendous referring decision handled Chelsea a penalty that Hazard calmly put away. Moses was brought down a good yard outside the box buy Pereira but somehow a penalty was called.
Credit to Inter in that they kept on going despite the poor referring and could have scored right before half-time but two blocks from Chelsea defender Gary Cahill and a last gasp clearance kept the score at 2-0.
Inter did get the ball in the net in the 49th minute, but Mauro Icardi was adjudged to have been offside.
The game was over as a contest in the 58th-minute when Inter’s Hugo Campagnaro was given a straight red card for a terrible challenge on John Terry. There was no way that Inter were coming back from a two goal deficit with only 10-men, especially as both managers emptied their benches in the second half.
