The bank holiday weekend's International Academy Tournament at Cobham kicked off with a match for each club involved and a win for Chelsea.

The Chelsea Academy is celebrating their brand new headquarters and global youth football development with a three-day competition and on an immaculate new match pitch alongside the building, a Chelsea Under 16 side tested themselves against counterparts from the famous River Plate club in Argentina, emerging 2-1 victors.

The match was the first to be played on a sunny Saturday and the first goal took a mere minute to arrive when the young Blues were awarded a penalty from their first move forward.

It was converted by Marco Mitrovic, the Swedish centre-forward having been the one fouled for the spot-kick.

He was also to score Chelsea's second goal but not before the Argentine side had levelled, their way to goal also coming from the penalty spot. Juan Montero was the accurate convertor.

With the score 1-1 and less than 10 minutes on the clock, it took a goalmouth scramble to keep Chelsea out again but then Billy Clifford executed a fine last-ditch tackle to prevent a near-certain River Plate goal.

Chelsea's second goal, midway through the 30 minute first-half, was everything the club's coaches are striving to achieve. In a smooth, highly-technical team move, Mitrovic combined with Aliu 'Kaby' Djalo before slotting home.

In his opening address for the tournament, Chelsea's director of youth development Frank Arnesen listed the famous names produced over the years by the clubs taking part.

River Plate gave the world the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano and their new generation are not without skill. They troubled the Chelsea defence either side of half-time but failed to take a succession of chances before the Blues came back strongly.

In the closing stages both Billy Knott and substitute Anton Rodgers went close but the extra goal proved unnecessary, not least due to an excellent diving save from Chelsea keeper Jemal Blackman at the death.

'River Plate were a tough team with seven Argentinian youth internationals and the Chelsea boys learnt today that you are not always going to control the game,' explained Under 16 coach Dermot Drummy after the match.

'But we tried to play and dug deep. We go August-to-August with our age groups and overseas they go January-to-January so opponents can be six months older. Before the game we showed the boys videos of John Terry being assertive and how the first team play out from the back and we tried to play that way today.

'It was good [the FA's director of football development] Trevor Brooking was here today because the second goal showed how academies try to play football.'

After Chelsea's opening win, the six remaining participants were all in action at the same time on three of the Academy's other pitches.

Joining the day's winners was the Disney Soccer Showcase All-Stars, chosen from players at America's most prestigious youth soccer tournament, the Disney Soccer Showcase which is run in conjunction with Chelsea FC.

The Americans looked to have thrown away a half-time advantage when they conceded a late handball penalty but then snatched a 2-1 win with a well-finished goal.

The defeated side in that game were FC Tolyatti, a Russian side whose academy receives sponsorship support from Roman Abramovich's sports charity foundation, the National Academy of Football. The Chelsea owner was a spectator at the game.

There was a more comfortable passage for Suwon Samsung Bluewings from Korea who were 5-0 winners against Right to Play Lebanon, a side brought together by Chelsea's global charity partner.

Few clubs in the world have better track records when it comes to developing young players than Ajax and Bayern Munich and their Under 16 sides played out a tight game, the Germans paying the price for lacking a cutting edge, going down to a single first-half goal.

The tournament continues on Sunday with the winners decided after another day of football on Monday.

An Under 14 festival is also taking place with DFC Dnipro from Ukraine added to the clubs present, as well as community and ladies activities.

Some of Chelsea's older Academy products can be watched in action this week on Chelsea TV when a pre-season friendly between Chelsea Reserves and Manchester United Reserves is broadcast live on Tuesday.

The programme starts at 2.45pm and is the place to view the behind-closed-doors fixture.