MANCHESTER CITY STARTS THE SEASON WITH A WIN AFTER DEFEATING LIVERPOOL ON PENALTIES
Manchester City have started the season from where they stopped last season as they won the English Community Shield after defeating Liverpool this evening.
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This is their second win consecutive Community Shield win and they have Claudio Bravo to thank for this feat as he saved a penalty kick to ensure the 5-4 victory at Wembley.
The game started with Man City dominating most of the play but just 10 minutes into the game they encountered a setback as they lost Leroy Sane to an injury and he made way for Gabriel Jesus. But the bad incident was soon forgotten as the first goal of the game was scored from the resulting freekick.
Kevin De Bruyne played the freekick in with cut-back crossing and David Silva flicked the ball from the cross to the path of Raheem Sterling and the English winger buried the ball into the net through Allison's leg. This is the first goal Raheem Sterling is scoring against his former club after facing them for the 11th time.
Liverpool took control of the possession after the goal but couldn't make any tangible use of the possession no thanks to a couple of wasted chances from Mohamed Salah as the first half ended with City leading with a lone goal.
The second half started as it ended with Liverpool continued effort of getting at least an equalizer but still to no avail and it was even Man City that almost doubled their lead.
Man City could have seen their lead doubled but Sterling's effort went too wide and could only hit the base of the post. The ball should and could have been adjudged offside as Sterling was in an offside position.
Liverpool were unlucky not to have equalized as Van Dijk effort hit the crossbar and bounced off the goal line without the ball actually crossing the line. But this ill luck was not to last for long as they finally got a goal.
Liverpool's effort rewarded as they got an equalizer later on from a Joel Matip header. The event that led to the goal started from a wasted chance by Sterling. After he raced towards Alisson but dithered on the ball which led to the goalkeeper calmly taking the ball away from him.
This resulting build-up from the collected ball led to the equalizer. Van Dijk controlled a loose cross at the edge of the 18-yard box and made a crossing back into the 6-yard box which Joel Matip connected to so well and scored.
Liverpool almost won the game only later on in the game through Naby Keita and Mohammed Salah glorious chances but were denied by Claudio Bravo heroics and an astonishing acrobatic clearance from Kyle Walker.
Guardiola became the first English club manager to receive a yellow card. A rule which came into play recently this summer. He got the card after reacting angrily to a Joe Gomez challenge on David Silva.
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The game ended in 1-1 draw and went straight to a penalty shoot-out. Bravo saved Wjnaldum's effort comfortably and Man City went on to score all of their 5 kicks with Gabriel Jesus taking the last kick from the spot to seal the victory.
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This game was an interesting game and it could be seen from the matches that this season is going to be keenly contested as there were little or nothing at all that separates both teams, the same thing we saw last season that saw the league title contested till the last game of the season.
Man City will start their Premier League title defence by playing West Ham away on Saturday while Liverpool begin their campaign this season by welcoming Norwich to Anfield.
This is Football, Anything can happen!!!
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