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This season's curtain-raiser between Liverpool and Manchester City certainly lived up to expectations. The game itself went to penalties after Joel Matip canceled out Raheem Sterling's early goal which was the result of a clever set-piece that left the Liverpool backline bewildered and goalkeeper, Alisson, stranded.
Furthermore, the game was a tale of two halves as City dominated the first period, outclassing the Reds up to the halfway mark. However, Liverpool came out for the second half looking like a different team with added desire and energy.
This was evident from their performance leading up to their goal, which was just reward for their efforts. In the 75th minute, a set-piece eventually found Virgil van Dijk who expertly placed the ball onto the rising Matip's head, who found the back of Claudio Bravo's net to level the score.
Liverpool took full advantage of City's struggles in the air, Van Dijk hitting the bar off another set-piece. While the European champions searched for the winner late on, it never arrived, although Jurgen Klopp's side did come close on several occasions, including when Mohamed Salah had his header acrobatically cleared off the line by Kyle Walker.
Salah then went on to hit the post and Xherdan Shaqiri too tested Bravo, who stood firm and took the game to penalties.
With nothing separating the two sides after 90 minutes, the Community Shield had to be settled from the penalty spot. Up first was Shaqiri for Liverpool and he didn't let the pressure get to him, slotting the ball past Bravo into the bottom corner. Ilkay Gundogan then leveled proceedings by placing his penalty into the corner.
However, Gini Wijnaldum then failed to beat the diving Bravo, handing City the advantage. The next six penalties all found the back of the net which meant Gabriel Jesus had the chance to win the game for his side.
The Brazilian didn't let the pressure get to him and slotted home the Community Shield-winning penalty for City.
Although City were clearly better from the spot, the two sides were fairly even over the course of the 90 minutes which perhaps gives us an indication about how close the Premier League title race could be this season.
