The Community Shield is a charity match played at Wembley Stadium where the winner of the FA Cup and the Premier League Champion from the previous season play the first match before the start of the season.
However, Manchester City won both the FA Cup against Watford and won the Premier League title which meant second place in the league will play instead, therefore, Manchester City played Liverpool.
The match revitalise the rivalry after the stunning season where Manchester City won the title at 98 points with Liverpool one point behind but the Reds went on to win their 6th Champions League.
Riyad Mahrez and Sadio Mane did not participate after playing each other in the African Cup of Nations Finals but both teams fielded a strong XI. Manchester City had Claudio Bravo in goal instead of their number 1 goalkeeper Ederson.
The last time Liverpool and Manchester City played in a final was the 2013 League Cup, where City handed Jurgen Klopp his first cup loss ending in a penalty shootout.
The first half was dominated by Manchester City with Raheem Sterling scoring his first goal against his former team after his 10th attempt in the 12th minute.
Pep Guardiola became the first Premier League manager to receive a yellow card after his over the top protest against Joe Gomez’s tackle on David Silva. Martin Atkinson saw the tackle as fair and punished the Sky Blues’ manager for arguing.
Mohamed Salah hit the post several times in the game and kept on aiming towards the near post but this was his second pre-season game which was promising for the start of the season.
The second half, Liverpool began to contest Manchester City’s dominance with the goal post hit by Virgil van Dijk and Salah in a short amount of time.
Raheem Sterling had the best chance to double City’s lead but stumbled in front of goal.
Liverpool’s substitute, Joel Matip scored in the 77th minute which ended the game 1-1. There was no extra time so the game continued onto penalties.
Gini Wijnaldum was the only player whose penalty was saved giving Manchester City their first silverware of the season.
Without any major new signings for Liverpool, many supporters were afraid they would fall behind in the new season but the match showed Liverpool and Manchester City will most likely produce an entertaining season.
Photo by Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash
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