London: Manchester City have exacted revenge from cross-town arch-rivals as they defeated Manchester United 7-6 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in regulation time to win the Community Shield Cup, the season-opener for the English season. The two teams last met at the same venue, the iconic Wembley Stadium when United had won the FA Cup.
Jadon Sancho and Jonny Evans were the players who missed their respective penalties and gave life to Bernardo Silva who had missed City’s first penalty shootout.
The defending Premier League champions are still missing some of their stars who have not yet returned from their break which saw young guns in the likes of Oscar Bobb, Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee all being inducted into the starting XI having impressed in preseason.
With Manchester City playing a mix of youth and experience, Manchester United played their full-strength lineup barring the players who are missing out through injuries.
Manchester City started strongly and controlled the game for the opening 25 minutes before Manchester United started finding their footing. Despite holding possession less than City, Erik Ten Hag’s men played their usual counter-attacking style of play and created better chances than their rivals.
The Red Devils, who were missing out on their striker Rasmus Hojlund through injury, once again made the same mistakes as they did last season as they failed to convert their chances with Marcus Rashford having gotten through on goal on more than one occasion.
Bruno Fernandes scored a wonder goal from outside the box in the 52nd minute but was adjudged offside with the goal being disallowed.
Manchester United drew first blood in the 82nd minute when Alejandro Garnacho, the goal scorer for Manchester United in the FA Cup final vs City, weaved through the opposition defence and calmly slotted the ball past Ederson.
Garnacho’s strike completely changed the game as Pep Guardiola’s side went into full attack mode and ended up scoring in the 89th minute through a well-worked goal which was assisted by 21-year-old Bobb and scored by Bernardo Silva to tie the game and confirm penalty shootouts as there is no extra-time in the Community Shield.
United skipper Bruno Fernandes kicked things off in the penalty shootouts as he made no mistake to give his side the 1-0 lead. Goal-scorer Bernardo Silva’s poor penalty was saved comfortably by Onana.
Diego Dalot, Kevin De Bruyne, Alejandro Garnacho and Erling Haaland went on to score the next four penalties before Jadon Sancho’s fourth penalty was saved by Ederson and new signing Savinho scored his attempt to tie the game at 3-3.
Casemiro and Ederson both slotted in the final penalties for their side to take the shootouts into sudden death.
Scott McTominay, Matheus Nunes, Lisandro Martinez and Ruben Dias scored the next four penalties until Jonny Evans blasted his attempt over the bar. Manuel Akanji scored the final shot to seal the season’s first trophy for City.
–IANS
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