Liverpool vs Manchester City: Pep Guardiola's men win Community Shield after beating rivals on penalties
Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City (City win 5-4 on penalties): City started brilliantly but faded. Liverpool started sluggishly but slogged their way back into it. Neither were fully on it but both enjoyed hugely impressive spells
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Another piece of silverware for Pep Guardiola to count, even if the only real significance of this season-opening Community Shield might be counting the cost of injury.
Leroy Sane went off as a genuine casualty early on, while Kevin De Bruyne was substituted as a precaution amid so many issues with his fitness from last season. It was Manchester City that held their nerve in the shoot-out, however, with Gabriel Jesus scoring the winner and Gini Wijnaldum having his spot-kick saved by one of the game’s better performers in Claudio Bravo.
You could almost say it was last season’s run-in in microcosm. Liverpool made one mistake, but City made none to just get over the line.
This obviously didn’t have any of that tension, though, in what ended up quite a fun afternoon. The pally reactions after the game told us that.
As to what it will tell us about this season, well, not that much. For all that the match ended with a vaunted test of mental strength, the theme of it was fitness and how well either are set for the new campaign.
City started brilliantly but faded. Liverpool started sluggishly but slogged their way back into it. Neither were fully on it but both had hugely impressive spells.
City’s came from the off. Within minutes, an electrically alert Raheem Sterling had snapped onto Joe Gomez’s hesitancy for Leroy Sane to go close.
That – a City attacker scorching through a surprisingly open Liverpool defence – became one of the more common sights of the game, albeit not involving Sane. He soon went off injured, potentially jeopardising a move to Bayern Munich in the process.
No matter to City in this first half, mind. They just continued in the same vein, just as they continued in the same vein as from their last match at Wembley, that utter evisceration of Watford in a freak-show of an FA Cup final.
Their players were still putting on the same show of talent. The opening goal was one of those moves that was the perfect illustration of the tight technical ability of these players, as De Bruyne perfectly headed it down for David Silva, the playmaker offered the kind of divine instinctive flick-on that has defined his sparkling City career, and Sterling finished. That last touch was a bit clumsier, but proved to be enough with Alisson was caught out by the tepidity of the shot.
Not that Sterling cared as he celebrated his first goal against his old club.
Against that kind of fluidity, Liverpool were initially more stuttering. They weren’t fully on it, as was almost personified by Mohamed Salah. He was up to speed in terms of fitness, as shown when he left Oleksandr Zinchenko on the floor by rampaging past him, but maybe not in terms of match-fitness. So many of his finishes were just too weak.
What Liverpool lacked in sharpness, however, they made up for in doggedness.
That is one of the qualities that has truly elevated this team, and is one huge reason why they may not be going away. They just have such an impressive perseverance.
Here, lacking some of their best players and best football, they willed their way back into the game and ended it the stronger. Their equaliser summed this up as they effectively forced the ball over the line. Virgil van Dijk, having already hit the bar with a header that stayed out by inches, this time headed across for Joel Matip to turn in.
Liverpool had fully turned over the game.
Claudio Bravo, so often an unfair figure of fun for City given that calamitous first season, so often kept them in it in the second half. At least two of his saves were spectacular, but still not as impressive as Kyle Walker’s rescue feat. As the game entered stoppage time, and a Salah header looked to be entering the net after another Liverpool break, the full-back athletically bicycle-kicked the ball away just in time.
So, it was time for penalties. And time for yet another Guardiola trophy at City. Just don’t expect it to tell us too much about where the major trophies go in nine months’ time.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments