SINGAPORE — Inter Milan pulled off a surprise 2-0 win over Bayern Munich on Thursday night (July 27) to get their International Champions Cup (ICC) Singapore campaign off to a solid start.

The Germans were regarded as favourites going into their second match of the tournament, having seen off Chelsea in a 3-2 victory two nights earlier where they could have scored more.

But they lacked the cutting edge against their Italian opponents this time, despite having more of the ball at the National Stadium in front of a 23,338-strong crowd.

Bayern manager Carlo Ancelotti was not bothered by the loss though and pointed out they had played only two days ago and made four changes to the line-up.

“It doesn’t matter, we have to consider the performance (instead),” he said.  “I didn’t want to give a lot of minutes to (the) players (who faced Chelsea) and I used a lot of young players from the academy, and honestly, they did very well.”

Nerazzurri captain Samir Handanovic had to tip Franck Ribery’s fierce drive over early on and then field a tame Rafinha drive, but was otherwise untroubled in the first half.

Instead, the 27-time Bundesliga champions were sucker-punched by the Serie A side, who broke away with speed twice and saw striker Eder convert both times before the break.

The Italian international adjusted brilliantly to head in Antonio Candreva’s right-wing cross on eight minutes, the ball having taken a bounce and lost power before reaching him.

The 30-year-old’s second on the half-hour mark was more straightforward. Croatian winger Ivan Perisic, heavily linked with a move to Manchester United in recent weeks, accelerated away down the left before delivering a peach of a cross that Eder nodded in from close range.

Inter manager Luciano Spalletti insisted the club wants to hold on to Perisic afterwards, but said the eventual decision was not up to him.

“Our intention is to keep Perisic if possible,” he said. “He’s a world-class player, whether he played well or not doesn’t change my mind… But there’s a lot of considerations to be made and I can’t say for sure whether he will stay or not.”

Kingsley Coman and James Rodriguez both headed over from promising positions as Bayern tried to get back in the game, though they were not helped when Carlo Ancelotti had to take off Ribery – their best player by far – on 34 minutes due to a knock.

Robert Lewandowski, who scored 43 times in 47 games last season, cut a frustrated figure upfront where he was hardly given a sniff by Joao Miranda and new arrival Milan Skriniar. The Pole was eventually taken off on 69 minutes after a barren night.

There appeared to be an ongoing spat between Perisic and Rafinha, who clashed a few times on Bayern’s right side as the Brazilian full-back struggled to deal with his opposite number’s pace and skill.

Thomas Mueller, himself the scorer of a brace on Tuesday, came on at half-time along with Renato Sanches, but the Bavarians still failed to find a way through.

In fact, the one time Handanovic was called upon, it was to save Miranda’s blushes after the centre-back inadvertently diverted a cross towards his own goal.

At the other end, Spalletti’s men rarely came close to extending their advantage but it didn’t matter ultimately against a lacklustre Bayern.

The 58-year-old, who took over the reins only last month, was hard-pressed to find fault with his side’s display.

“Overall we played a good game and I am very proud of my team,” he said. “If I had to be very picky, I’d say in the second half, we could have been a bit more aggressive…but overall I think we had a good game.”

The defeat meant Bayern have fallen to both Milan giants in pre-season, having lost 4-0 to AC Milan on Saturday, while Inter will have the chance to seal top spot in the ICC Singapore tournament if they avoid defeat against Chelsea on Saturday.