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Manchester City and Liverpool went head-to-head at Wembley for the FA Community Shield 2019. It ended 1-1 at the end of regular time following which City won a thrilling penalty shootout 5-4 to lift the Community Shield for the second consecutive time. For City, the sole goal was scored by Raheem Sterling. For Liverpool, their single goal was netted by Joel Matip.
In the first half of the match, both teams were played with brilliant intensity though sadly, Leroy Sane went off injured around the 10th minute and was replaced by Gabriel Jesus.
Moments later, City took the lead through Raheem Sterling and minutes after that Sterling had another brilliant opportunity, saved by Alisson Becker. For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah had a few chances but he wasn't clinical enough. Overall, City dominated Liverpool in the first half and went into the second half with a deserved lead.
In the second half, Liverpool came back in the game and started playing with a familiar flair. Virjil Van Djik and Mohamed Salah hit the post before the substitute, Joel Matip, equalized for the Reds. Liverpool had a spring in their step after equalizing and were going for the kill and City were barely holding on. At injury time, Kyle Walker somehow managed to clear from the goal line from Salah's effort. The match ended 1-1 at the end of regulation time and City won 5-4 on penalties .
It was an absolutely cracking game and in this slideshow, we are going to take a look at the three talking points from the game.
#3 Liverpool defended poorly in the first half but improved later
At the start of the game, Liverpool's defense just wasn't clicking and lacked cohesion. They were keeping a high line as they always do, but something just wasn't right especially in the first half. As mentioned in the previous slide, City midfielders were quite easily breaking the offside trap and the full-backs weren't picking them up.
City should have scored more considering the chances they got in the first half but didn't, and Liverpool's defense got back to their former, fluent self in the second. Liverpool started pressing with cohesion and dominating the game as Virgil Van Dijk pinging out some delightful balls. He also hit the post from the corner.
They caught Sterling and Jesus offside many times and the full-backs also found the ball in City's half much more often in the second period. Only Trent Alexander-Arnold didn't improve from the first half and he was substituted for Joel Matip later in the second half and what a substitution that proved to be, as Matip equalized for Liverpool with an assist from Van Dijk.
#2 City's midfield had a game of two halves
At the start of the game, Manchester City played with a midfield three of Rodri, David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, and almost all of them were absolutely dominating in the middle especially in the first 20 minutes or so. Both de Bruyne and Silva were constantly finding pockets of space available between the Liverpool defense and midfield. While de Bruyne delivery in the box could be faulted, his efforts can't be.
Silva got the assist for City's first goal and the new signing, Rodri was pretty neat and tidy with the ball. On the other hand, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson were really struggling to pick up Silva and de Bruyne. Liverpool's full-backs were really struggling as well with the runs the City midfielders were making, especially Andrew Robertson.
In the second half though, City's midfield was nowhere to be found as Liverpool completely dominated them. Henderson especially was almost everywhere before he was substituted for Adam Lallana.
#1 Lack of potency in front of goal cost Reds
At the end of regular time, that 1-1 scoreline will have left Jurgen Klopp disappointed, to say the least, as the Reds had so many opportunities to win the game but lacked the telling touch in from of goal.
In the first half, Mohamed Salah had two brilliant opportunities to send Liverpool in front but he didn't and in the second half as well, that same man missed many opportunities.
The one in injury time would have hurt him the most as he just had to beat Claudio Bravo from close range but the Spaniard came on top just as he did in the penalty shoot-out.
Although one can say Bravo made some great saves, but considering the quality of Salah, he should have buried at least one of those opportunities. At the end of the day, it was that lack of potency in front of goal that finally lost Liverpool the game.
