Chelsea vs Inter - Match Preview

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Chelsea vs Inter - Match Preview

Venue: Chelsea face Inter Milan in our first match of the Guinness International Champions Cup in Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis on Thursday, August 1st at 8:00 pm local time (1:00 am on August 2nd UK time).

About The Match: This match will be the first of four games to be played in the USA as the second part of preseason, three of which are in the International Champions Cup, or ICC which has, this year, replaced the "World Football Challenge" which Chelsea participated in and won back in 2009. The competition consists of 8 clubs and features top European teams like Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan..etc

If Chelsea manage to win this match, we will move into the semifinal to face AC Milan who have already beat Valencia 2-1 on the 27th of July. Lose and we will face Valencia instead, in a match to determine who will play for fifth place and who will play for 7th.

About The Opposition: Jose Mourinho will be playing for the first time against Inter since leaving the club back in 2010 to join Real Madrid. The Special helped the club that he described as one of his two "passions in football", the other being Chelsea, to the Serie A in 2008-09 as well as the 2009-10 Treble. So it will definitely be an emotional encounter for our Portuguese manager.

But since Jose's departure, Inter have been steadily going downhill. Not only have they failed to win any major trophies since 2010, but they've also failed to qualify to any European competition last season after finishing in a shocking 9th position. They've also lost some major players that were key to they success under the special one like Julio Cesar, Etoo, Maicon..etc

Inter are also rumored to be leading the chase to sing Chelsea's young Brizlian Right Back, Wallace, on loan for next season.

Latest Meetings: Chelsea and Inter have only met twice previously in official competitions, both in the 2009-10 last 16 round. Inter won both matches 2-1 and 0-1 a the Giuseppe Meazza and Stamford Bridge respectively. Etoo scored the only goal at the bridge and Milito and Cambiaso both scored in Milano while Kalou scored the blues' only goal in the tie.

Friendlies-wise, Chelsea last met Inter in 20009 in this same competition (was still, called World Football Challenge back then) and won 2-0 with goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard (pen).

Team News: Here are the official squads of each team for the competition:

Chelsea:

Goalkeepers: Petr Cech, Mark Schwarzer, Jamal Blackman (EDIT: It seems Hilario has also traveled with the team according to the official site).

Defenders: Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ryan Bertrand

Midfielders: Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, Oscar, John Obi Mikel, Kevin De Bruyne, Mako van Ginkel, Eden Hazard

Forwards: Fernando Torres, Victor Moses, Andre Schurrle, Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba

Manager: Jose Mourinho

Luiz, Azpilicueta, Mata, Oscar, Mikel and Torres have all returned from their extended vacation after the Confederation Cup and have replaced the youngsters that were with the first team in Asia. Chelsea's only missing player is Thomas Kalas, who picked up an injury and is expected to be out for about a month (no news yet if someone else is going to be called to replace him). Frank Lampard, Andre Schurrle and Kevin De Bruyne have all recovered from their respective injuries and will be available for this match.

Inter:

Goalkeepers: Samir Handanovic, Juan Pablo Carrizo, Luca Castellazzi

Defenders: Hugo Campagnaro, Marco Andreolli, Walter Samuel, Andrea Ranocchia, Christian Chivu, Juan

Midfielders: Ibrahima, Mbaye, Jonathan, Yuto Nagatomo, Alvaro Pereira, Esteban Cambiasso, Fredy Guarin, Ricardo Alvarez, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Patrick Olsen, Gabi Mudingayi, Diego Laxalt, Joel Obi

Forwards: Alessandro Capello, Ishak Belfodil, Rodrigo Palacio, Mauro Icardi

Manager: Walter Mazzarri

Inter have a few players who still haven't recovered from sustained last season; most notably their captain Javier Zanetti, Argentinian striker Diego Milito and perhaps most importantly Mateo Kovacic, Inter's 20 year old creative midfielder.

Expected lineups: Both managers have been experimenting with squad during preseason, so there is no way to expect what lineup will be used for this match. Instead, here are the last lineups used by each manager:

Chelsea started their last game in Asia against BNI Indonesia All-Stars with a 4-3-3 formation for the first time to great effect as the team cruised to an 8-1 victory. The starting lineup was:

Blackman

Wallace, Cahill, Terry ©, Bertrand

Ramires, Chalobah, Van Ginkel

Moses, Ba, Hazard

Inter, on the other hand, played their usual 3-5-2 in a 1-1 draw with Hmaburg:

1 Handanovic

14 Campagnaro, 23 Ranocchia, 5 Juan Jesus;

55 Nagatomo, 13 Guarin, 19 Cambiasso, 11 Alvarez, 31 Pereira;

8 Palacio, 9 Icardi

It is expected that Inter put out a very similar lineup to the one above while Chelsea's lineup is expected to be drastically changed from the one played in Indonesia.

Opposition Analysis: Inter play a free-flowing style of football unlike most Italian teams and liked to press higher up the pitch, under Strama, than you'd usually see in the Serie A. They have goals in them all across the pitch, but struggle for 'inspiration' in some matches. Their notorious frailties at the back have haunted them for more than two seasons now.

The biggest threats to look out for are Rodrigo Palacio who at times carried Inter by himself last season and managed to score 12 goals in all competitions. Inter's new signing, Mauro Icardi, is another dangerous man in the attack. The 20 year old Argentinian made his debut in the Serie A last season with Sampdoria and managed to score 11 goals. He's already off the mark for Inter as he scored their only goal in the 1-1 draw with Hamburg.

Stats & Facts:

- Chelsea won the first International Champions Cup back in 2009 when it was still called World Football Challenge.

- Chelsea and Inter have met once before in this competition where the Blues came out on top as goals from Drogba and Lampard secured a 2-0 win.

- Chelsea have lost both of their previous meetings with Inter in official competitions.

- No team in Europe's top 5 leagues played more games last season than Chelsea (69).

- Inter finished last season in 9th place. Their worst finish since 1994.

- Inter, last season, conceded the joint second most goals in the Serie A with 57 goals in their net.

- In contrast, Chelsea conceded the third least, and scored the second most amount of goals in the PL last season.

Odds: Chelsea are firm favorites to come out on top as is reflected by the odds:

Odds: Chelsea -125, Inter Milan +300, Draw +220

Source: LVH SuperBook (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA)

3-Way Odds: Chelsea -136, Inter Milan +300, Draw +225

Total: Over 2½ -125, Under 2½ -109

Decimal Odds: Chelsea 1.73, Inter Milan 4.00, Draw 3.25

Decimal Total: Over 2½ 1.80, Under 2½ 1.91

Fractional Odds: Chelsea 93/100, Inter Milan 3/1, Draw 9/2

Fractional Total: Over 2½ 4/5, Under 2½ 91/100

Source: sportsbook.com (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles)

TV Coverage: The game will be live on Chelsea TV. It will also be available on Fox Sport and ESPN Deportes in the US as well as Al Jazeera +2 in the middle east. For anyone without any access to those channels, there should be a lot of streams available for the match. And for those who have have work, there will be a match feed provided by TalkChelsea's official twitter account.

KTBFFH

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[zolayes 14,489]

The Club site include Hilario in the squad, Seems he has been airbrushed here

[CHOULO19 24,332]

The Club site include Hilario in the squad, Seems he has been airbrushed here

I got the squads from Goal.com: http://www.goal.com/icc/2013/07/25/4143420/squads-announced-for-2013-guinness-international-champions

I only removed Kalas who's pulled out of the competition with an injury.

[zolayes 14,489]

do you always use goal .... I know our Club site isn't the best but .............

[CHOULO19 24,332]

do you always use goal .... I know our Club site isn't the best but .............

I google "Chelsea squad for the Guinness International Champions Cup" and Goal was the first that came up. Don't think the official site was among the results.