Drogba stakes claim for starting spot

Chelsea 1 AC Milan 1

It was Chelsea's third game in eight days on a US tour which also produced a 1-0 win over the Italian side last Sunday in Boston and a hard-fought 2-1 win over American side DC United in Washington on Thursday.

Chelsea were due to arrive in London following an overnight flight from New York this morning, ahead of next weekend's Community Shield against Arsenal and manager Jose Mourinho will have plenty to think about regarding the selection of his starting line-up from a star-studded squad.

Most pleasing to him will be the scoring contribution yesterday of Didier Drogba, who came off the bench at half-time to replace Hernan Crespo, and scored a fine individual goal to give Chelsea the lead following a lacklustre opening.

Drogba cut in from left wing in the 65th minute, beat Gennaro Gattuso and then rode an Alessandro Costacurta tackle to fire home across keeper Valerio Fiori.

That sparked some life into Milan who immediately went on the offensive.

Christian Vieri headed home minutes later when Andrea Pirlo's free-kick rebounded off the bar, only to be ruled out for offside, but Rui Costa made amends in the 80th minute when he capitalised on a Robert Huth defensive error to cut back from the byline on the left and curl in a right-footed shot that went in at the far post.

CHELSEA: C Cudicini (P Cech, H-T), P Ferreira (R Carvalho, H-T), A del Horno, W Gallas (G Johnson, 54), J Terry (R Huth, 74), C Makelele (Tiago, 60), F Lampard, J Cole (S Wright-Phillips, H-T), D Duff, E Gudjohnsen (Geremi, 69), H Crespo (D Drogba, H-T).

AC MILAN: D Eleftheropoulos (V Fiori, H-T), Cafu, K Kaladze, A Nesta, J Stam (A Costacurta H-T), G Gattuso (J Vogel, 68), M Ambrosini (L Marzoratti, 89), C Seedorf (Rui Costa, H-T), A Pirlo, A Gilardino, C Vieri.

Referee: B Hall, USA.