By Sulaimon Jamiu
Last campaign’s Premier League runner-ups, Liverpool have won the F.A Community Shield for the first time in 16 years, with a first goal on English soil for £85 million record signing Darwin Nunez.
Jurgen Klopp, who has now won all of his domestic trophies, saw his team dominate and lead at halftime thanks to a brilliant strike from right back, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
City’s other newcomer striker Julian Alvarez came off the bench to equalize, but Liverpool took the lead again with Mo Salah’s 83rd-minute penalty, after VAR ruled Ruben Dias had handled.
The loudest applause came at the end, when the electric Nunez stooped to score Liverpool’s third goal, fulfilling numerous pre-match prediction of 3-1 and filling the King Power stadium with red smoke as they celebrated, in a liverpool kind of way.
It was Liverpool’s third trophy of 2022, but the quality of football on display for both teams demonstrated that no one will be able to catch them, and another epic title race between the two great rivals seems to be on its way.
With Haaland and Nunez dominating the pre-match headlines, Mo Salah wasted no time in reminding everyone that he, too, is a hot property.
The Egyptian finished last season as a stricken figure in the Champions League final, but energized by a lucrative new contract at Anfield, he twice twisted the blood of Joao Cancelo in the opening minutes, twice leaving the Portuguese defender for dead before firing into the sidenet.
After being beaten by City for the league title last season, Salah’s eagerness gave the large travelling army of Liverpool fans something to cheer about, mocking the Blues with “Where’s Your European Cup?”
Haaland responded with his first sharp movement and a clean left-foot strike from the edge of the box, which Virgil van Dijk intercepted with his outstretched leg for a corner.
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have one of the greatest managerial rivalries in football, but the Catalan has had the upper hand in the Community Shield, winning three of the season’s openers to his counterpart’s nil.
