Thanks to a goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez, the Reds overcame the Skyblues (3-1) this Saturday in Leicester.
Liverpool got off to a good start in the new English season by beating arch-rivals Manchester City (3-1) in the traditional Community Shield on Saturday with a goal from star rookie Darwin Nunez that eclipsed clumsy Erling Haaland . Played exceptionally in Leicester, due to the holding of the final of the Women’s Football Euro at Wembley on Sunday, this match obviously has a very low predictive value on the course of the coming season.
It is in any case to be wished for the Citizens who notably saw Erling Haaland find the top of the bar when he was seven meters from the goals, with the goalkeeper on the ground, in additional time (90 + 5). The score, at that time, was already 3-1, and nothing says that this goal would have changed anything, but this failure remains unlikely for a player who had scored 86 times in 89 matches for Dortmund.
The question of the adaptation of the Norwegian prodigy, holder for this match, to the Premier League in general and to the game of City in particular will be one of the keys of the season for the defending champions. His performance was also encouraging, if not fully satisfactory, given the lack of automatism he has with his teammates. He, for example, used his extraordinary physique to resist a return from Andy Robertson, before striking from the left, but Adrian, preferred to Alisson for this match, repelled his attempt well (34th). A few seconds later, he was a little too short to take the outside of the foot a fleeing cross (35th). However, there is little doubt that this relative lack of realism is quite temporary and that the English and European defenses will have everything to fear from the colossus this season.
Nunez and Salah decisive
The Reds, on the other hand, were able to celebrate the first goal in his new colors by the Uruguayan Darwin Nunez, who this summer became the biggest transfer in their history, for nearly 100 million euros. The former Benfica player started on the bench, however, replacing Roberto Firmino only after an hour of play, but he was at the end of a very nice movement where Thiago Alcantara found Mohamed Salah on the right, whose the center was delivered from the head by Robertson for that, diving and at close range, of Nunez (3-1, 90 + 4).
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A goal that ended City’s hopes of coming back in a game that was played for half an hour at a breakneck pace on both sides, before becoming more uneven afterwards. The Reds had managed to gain the upper hand on a wrapped strike from Trent Alexander-Arnold, served back by Salah, who had found the post returning from Ederson (1-0, 21st). The Egyptian, who finally extended his contract on the banks of the Mersey this summer, also scored a penalty goal – caused by a header from Nunez, deflected from the hand by Ruben Dias – to restore the advantage to the his at the end of the match (2-1, 83rd). Meanwhile, it was Julian Alvarez, another City rookie, who tied the teams in the 70th.
This first Community Shield of the Jürgen Klopp era in any case launches in style what promises to be another neck and neck duel between the two best English teams, which almost seem to evolve in a separate division.