Liverpool 1(4)-1(5) Manchester City : 5 talking points in the Community shield clash

Liverpool 1(4)-1(5) Manchester City : 5 talking points to take after Manchester City’s Community shield win against Liverpool tonight.

Manchester City faced Liverpool to kick off the English footballing season, as both the sides had a long battle in the Community shield match in Wembley, London.

In the end, Pep Guardiola’s side came out victorious after out-beating the Reds in the penalty shootouts by 5-4, as both the teams equaled the score by 1-1 in the regular game-time.

Both the sides started the match with great vigour, with attacking mindset. Although, sloppiness was seen at the both ends in the initial minutes, but considering its the beginning of the season, it was understandable.

Manchester City had to face a major blow in the first match of the season, as their star player Leroy Sane had to leave the pitch after twisting his knee in the first half of the game, although, presently, there are no further updates regarding his injury.

Also read: 5 players Arsenal could sign before the transfer window closes

Further, Gabriel Jesus came on to replace Sane for the rest of the match. Thus, it was obvious that Raheem Sterling who started in the centre had to be shifted on the left-wing, to accommodate Jesus at his natural position.

The Citizens tasted the success first after nervous Liverpool defense enabled Sterling to convert from a close range to make it 1-0 in the 12th minute. On the other hand, Liverpool equaled the score in the final phase of the game when Joel Matip came from the bench to score.

Thus, with this score, the game went to penalties. Alisson Becker failed to save even one penalty to let Manchester City have all five succesful penalties. Whereas Liverpool fell short of their opponents after Claudio Bravo saved Georginio Wijnaldum’s penalty.

Without further ado, let’s look at the five talking points from the clash in Wembley.

#5 Liverpool’s sloppy first half game costed them several chances

Liverpool returned to the new season after having one of the most successful campaigns in years. However, Manchester City were able to catch Liverpool off-guard due to their sloppiness in the game.

Considering, Joseph Gomez had the most number of touches in the first half of the game, shows, how inactive were the Liverpool midfield was in the initial moments of the game.

Neither, Manchester City were great but were effective enough to dominate Liverpool most of the times, especially in the first half of the match.

Same was the case with the Reds during their pre-season tour, as they had underwhelming performances with same mistakes. At that time, it was avoidable, but now the season has started and Jurgen Klopp has to fix certain things.

Although, Liverpool had a much better second half but not as impressive, as they have been last season, at certain points the Merseyside club did look lethal but all the chances were wasted by the front-line. With Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino failing to convert chances.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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