Man City Draw First Blood With Community Shield Victory Over Liverpool
4th August 2019
In the shoot-out, City keeper Claudio Bravo saved from Georginio Wijnaldum, with Gabriel Jesus driving in the winning kick
- Manchester City fired the first shot in their battle for supremacy with rivals Liverpool on Sunday as they snatched the Community Shield with a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win after a 1-1 draw at Wembley
- Raheem Sterling gave City a first half lead before Joel Matip grabbed a late equaliser for Liverpool in the annual curtain-raiser to the English top-flight season
- The jubilant celebrations from City's players and fans showed inflicting an early psychological blow on Liverpool was a moment to savour, regardless of the supposed warm-up status of the glamour friendly
LONDON, United
Kingdom- Manchester City fired the first shot in their battle for supremacy
with rivals Liverpool on Sunday as they snatched the Community Shield with a
5-4 penalty shoot-out win after a 1-1 draw at Wembley.
Raheem Sterling gave City a first half lead before Joel
Matip grabbed a late equaliser for Liverpool in the annual curtain-raiser to
the English top-flight season.
In the shoot-out, City keeper Claudio Bravo saved from
Georginio Wijnaldum, with Gabriel Jesus driving in the winning kick after
successful efforts from Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and
Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The jubilant celebrations from City's players and fans
showed inflicting an early psychological blow on Liverpool was a moment to
savour, regardless of the supposed warm-up status of the glamour friendly.
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"An incredible final from both sides. We had real good
moments, but in the last 15 minutes we were exhausted and they had chances to
win the game," Guardiola said.
"It was a good test for both teams. It's nice for the
players to realise what they will face this season.
"At this level the difference is nothing, just one
penalty. The first title of the season is ours."
With City installed as favourites to win the title for a
third successive season and Liverpool expected to present the strongest
challenge to Pep Guardiola's side, their meeting on the eve of the season was a
window into what to expect this term.
After pipping Liverpool to last season's Premier League
title with 98 points to their rivals' 97, City went on to complete an
unprecedented domestic treble by adding the FA Cup to the League Cup they won
earlier in the campaign.
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But Jurgen Klopp's men didn't dwell on that painful
near-miss as they won the Champions League just weeks later.
On the evidence of this hard-fought contest, which featured
both flashes of quality and signs of rustiness, there will little to separate
the two teams as they go head-to-head for the major prizes once again over the
next 10 months.
Retaining the Community Shield trophy they won 12 months ago
would improve City's belief that they can repeat last season's remarkable
silverware haul, but Liverpool could take encouragement as well after they
finished strongly enough to have won.
The only dark cloud for City was an injury to Bayern Munich
target Leroy Sane, who limped off in the 10th minute holding his right leg.
City's victory was a well-time riposte for Guardiola, who
this week hit back at Klopp's claim that the champions live in a transfer
"fantasy land".