SINGAPORE — A well-taken first-half brace from Thomas Mueller saw Bayern Munich edge Chelsea in a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night (July 25) in the International Champions Cup (ICC).

The clash between last season’s German and English league champions was the first ever ICC tie in Singapore, which will also feature Inter Milan later this week.

Both teams played to a near sold-out crowd at the 55,000-capacity National Stadium, with 48,522 fans decked out in a sea of red and blue cheering their idols on.

Chelsea, who came off a 3-0 friendly win over Arsenal in Beijing on Saturday, started promisingly with some slick passing inside the first five minutes.

But they were caught out of the blue by a belting strike from Rafinha on six minutes, the Brazilian right-back rifling the ball across Thibault Courtois and in off his right-hand post from 25 yards.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men then ran riot and went 3-0 up by the half hour through a double from fan favourite Mueller, who received by far the loudest cheers when his name was read out during the starting line-up announcements before kick-off.

The German international timed his run perfectly on 12 minutes to acrobatically finish off a cross from Franck Ribery, who had also created the first goal.

The crowd were then brought to their feet on 27 minutes by a moment of brilliance from Mueller, who took Corentin Tolisso’s pass in his stride and then curled a beautiful 25-yard effort beyond Courtois’ despairing dive.

The 27-year-old, who came under criticism last season after scoring only nine times in 42 appearances, reaffirmed his importance to the team and was praised by Ancelotti.

“Thomas is very important because he is an intelligent player and is able to find space, to be ready,” the Italian said of the man who has spent the past nine years at Bayern.

“Honestly, he was good also last year, he didn't score a lot of goals but his position on the pitch was always good. In this moment, he is more efficient close to the goal and this is important. But always, he is an important player, not because he scores but because of the (dangerous) positions he is able to take on the pitch.”

His compatriot, Antonio Conte, was left frustrated by his team’s inability to deal with their opponents’ high press, as they repeatedly ceded possession in their own half.

The Blues did get on the scoresheet on the stroke of half-time through left wing-back Marcos Alonso, who hammered Victor Moses’ low cross past Tom Starke from 12 yards.

New Bayern signing James Rodriguez, who had been quiet in the first half, looked like a man on a mission to open his club account after the break.

The Colombian attacking midfielder, on a two-year loan from Real Madrid, came close on four occasions as two efforts went just wide, one was straight at the goalkeeper and the last was heroically blocked by Gary Cahill.

His side nearly came to rue not extending their advantage as they conceded again on 85 minutes. New Chelsea man Alvaro Morata, who came on in the 63rd minute to make his first appearance for the club, flicked on Cesc Fabregas’ corner at the near post to Michy Batshuayi, who tapped the ball in easily.

That gave Conte something to be pleased about, though he cautioned against reading too much into the Spaniard’s performance.

“It’s too easy now to speak about the impact of Alvaro during the game, don’t forget he’s stayed with us only two days and he needs to work, to find a good fit (with the team),” he said.

“For sure, he showed great will to fight, to go into our idea of football, for us he is a good buy, but it’s right to give him the right to adapt to our methods, our ideas.”

Conte can also take heart from Chelsea’s improved second-half showing, as they posed more of a threat and could have got back in the game earlier had David Luiz’s deflected effort gone in off the post instead of out behind in the 72nd minute.

But it was Bayern who held on to earn a hard-fought victory and the players walked the length of the pitch afterwards to brandish a giant banner with “Thank You” in both English and Mandarin for their fans.

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