FERNANDO TORRES scored his fifth goal in three games as Chelsea eased into the Club World Cup final.
Juan Mata gave the Blues a first-half lead against Mexican giants Monterrey before the in-form Torres made it two after the break.
A Darvin Chavez own goal then put Rafa Benitez’s men further ahead before Aldo de Nigris pulled back a late consolation for the CONCACAF Champions League winners.
Chelsea will now face Brazil’s Corinthians in Sunday’s final in Yokohama.
And victory for the European champions will give interim boss Benitez his first piece of silverware less than four weeks after landing the job.
Goal hero Mata said: “For us it is a very important tournament, we want to win this trophy, to be world champions and on Sunday we will try our best to win.
“We have confidence but we know that Corinthians are a really good team, one of the best in South America.
“They have a lot of supporters here with them but we have our supporters as well and it will be a football party and hopefully we will win.”
Goalline technology was in place for the first time in a match involving a Premier League team.
But it was not to be needed in a semi-final clash as one-sided as most predicted at a half-empty Nissan Stadium.
Benitez fielded a strong side although surprised many by starting David Luiz in midfield.
The Brazilian, though, looked comfortable in his new position and nearly set up an early opener but Eden Hazard was wasteful from six yards.
Oscar and Branislav Ivanovic then both had chances to break the deadlock before Mata made his mark.
Ashley Cole put the ball on a plate for the Spaniard who sidefooted home.
Ivanovic could have made it two from a corner but his header cleared the bar.
And then the Mexicans nearly equalised out of nothing when De Nigris got in front of Petr Cech to nod narrowly over.
Torres had a poor first half but it took less than 20 seconds after the break for him to add to his recent goalscoring tally.
Hazard got round the back before squaring for the former Liverpool star to score via a huge deflection.
It was the first time Torres had netted in three successive games since his £50million move from the Reds.
The Blues sealed victory two minutes later when Torres’ low cross found Mata, whose ball back across goal hit the unfortunate Chavez and trickled in.
Chelsea were now rampant and Hazard weaved his way through but shot too close to Jonathan Orozco.
The travelling Blues faithful still had time to abuse Benitez — reacting with bile each time his face was shown on the big screen.
But jeers turned to cheers when Frank Lampard came off the bench to replace Luiz.
Monterrey did pull one back — Di Nigris beating Cech in stoppage time from a narrow angle.
But it had been a comfortable run-out for Benitez’s team who will be in confident of lifting the trophy on Sunday night.
The Sun
