Preview: Mourinho’s road to home; Mazzari’s journey to uncharted waters
He won aplenty at Chelsea but his failure to win the big trophy saw him head out. At Inter Milan, Mourinho achieved the dream treble including the holy grail, the UEFA Champions League. When he left Massimo Moratti and the club, Inter fell apart. Jose Mourinho eventually found his way back to Chelsea after a mixed spell at Real Madrid. In each passing press conference, he seems more and more at home.
He selected a 25-man squad for this competition including new signings Andre Schürrle and Marco Van Ginkel as well as loan returnee Kevin De Bruyne. Initially the squad consisted of 26 members. However, Tomas Kalas had to pull out due to an injury.
Inter Milan will walk out under a new coach as well in America. Walter Mazzari, who coached Napoli to second place in Serie A last season, has taken over the reins at Inter. Ishak Belfodil is taking his first trip to the United States with Inter this season. He feels that Inter’s task is made just that much more difficult by the fact that Chelsea is slightly ahead in their preseason preparations.
Chelsea has had a good preseason so far. They won all their previous three games. They beat BNI Indonesia All-Stars, 8-1. This victory was preceded by a 4-0 thumping of Malaysia. Prior to playing Malaysia, they beat Singha All-Stars of Bangkok, 1-0. Following this match, they will play either AC Milan or Valencia in New York. Their US trip is set to conclude in Washington on the 10th of August against AS Roma. Inter beat Vicenza, 3-1 recently; they proceeded to beating Feralpi Salo 2-0 in their next friendly.
Mazzari will perhaps try to impose Napoli’s direct style of play to a certain extent on Inter Milan. Napoli did well in their UEFA Champions League campaign in 2011-12 using that style. In fact, they came very close to knocking Chelsea out of the competition in the Round of 16. Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, it seems will preside over a more attacking Chelsea side this time rather than the dour sides he managed in the past.
Where to watch the match- live stream, start time, TV channels
Watch Chelsea vs Inter Milan live on Thursday, 1st August 2013 here:
In the USA at 20:00 ET on Fox Soccer 2Go, Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN 3, ESPN Deportes and Sirius XM FC
Internationally on Chelsea TV
In addition, channels such as Supersport 3 and Al Jazeera Sports HD 1 will be bringing the game to many other parts of the world. You can view all the TV listings on this page.
