Bayern's Ancelotti stays grounded after impressive start against Chelsea

SINGAPORE, July 25 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich manager Carlo Ancelotti was delighted with his side's first-half performance in the 3-2 friendly victory over Chelsea on Tuesday but the Italian did not read too much into the German champions' early dominance.

Bayern responded brilliantly to last week's 4-0 drubbing by AC Milan in Shenzhen with a scintillating start against Chelsea as Thomas Mueller's double after Rafinha's pinpoint shot gave the Germans a 3-0 lead inside 26 minutes in Singapore.

"These games in this period are not so real. Normally, Chelsea's defensive organisation is really good but maybe today they had more problems and (manager Antonio) Conte was trying out different players," Ancelotti told reporters.

"I am sure Chelsea will have great defensive organisation in the coming season but it's only the pre-season and we did not want to spend too much energy pressing, so we made the most of our counter-attacking chances."

Mueller, new loan signing James Rodriguez and winger Franck Ribery formed a formidable trio behind Polish striker Robert Lewandowski with the German's two sublime strikes singled out for praise by Ancelotti.

"Thomas is very important as he is an intelligent player, able to find space and despite not scoring a lot of goals last season was still very good," the Italian added after late goals in each half for Chelsea made the final score a lot closer.

"At the moment, he looks more efficient in front of goal and that's important for us. The positions he takes on the pitch are very useful for the side."

Rodriguez played his first full match since joining Bayern on a two-year load deal from Real Madrid and the Colombian winger was a constant menace to the Chelsea backline and unlucky not to open his account.

"His performance was good and it doesn't matter if he didn't score. It's important for him to gel with the others and he combined well with Mueller, with Lewandowski and with Ribery," Ancelotti said.

Bayern next play Inter Milan at the same venue on Thursday. (Reporting by John O'Brien; Editing by Ken Ferris)