Liverpool hit City first

Liverpool rules in England. The team led by Jürgen Klopp beat Manchester City in the Community Shield this Saturday in a duel that sparked strong emotions and served as a business card for Darwin Núñez. The Uruguayan striker emerged as the main protagonist in the 3-1 draw for the ‘reds’ by causing the penalty scored by Mohamed Salah and which gave his team an advantage and by closing the scoring in the final stretch with his first official goal in his new stage in English football.

It was July 30, but the atmosphere of the fat party was already in the air. Leicester’s King Power Stadium dressed up, ‘God save the queen’ included, to raise the curtain on the season in English football. Liverpool, champion of the FA Cup, and Manchester City, winner of the Premier League, met for a Community Shield that serves year after year to evaluate how the greats arrive after the preseason and to see the landing of the new signings . So it was. Erling Haaland monopolized each and every one of the spotlights at the start of the game, while Darwin Núñez waited expectantly from the bench.

The attention on the Norwegian was such that Liverpool took advantage of it to enter the field of play much more plugged in than the ‘citizens’. Jürgen Klopp prepared the trap, gave the ball to Pep Guardiola’s men and took advantage of the presence of the full-backs in the opposite field to dart towards Ederson’s goal. This is how Salah could score after a ball behind Cancelo or Robertson after a lateral cross. It was two warnings before hitting the target with a shot by Alexander-Arnold from the edge of the box that was poisoned after hitting Ake’s head.

Liverpool had a plan and just 20 minutes were enough to leave City touched, who entered the pitch still in flip-flops but gradually acclimatized to the match. Haaland and Mahrez were able to confirm that improvement before the break, but ran into an Adrián who was going to give war.

Darwin Núñez, omnipresent

After the restart, City did not find the formula to crack a comfortable Liverpool with the advantage on the scoreboard. The lack of rhythm, typical of these heights of preseason, took over some ‘skyblue’ who had no ideas after the break. That is when Guardiola took the opportunity to shake the shaker by moving a bench that year after year continues to have infinite resources. Phil Foden and Julián Álvarez entered to add spice to a duel that at that time was wandering towards the final stretch without unforeseen events. The Argentine has swollen to score goals with the River shirt and at the first change, in his debut, he caught a loose ball in the area to tie the game and bring the Community Shield to a boil.

Liverpool accepted the challenge and changed the defensive withdrawal of the second half for the vertigo always inherent in Klopp’s teams. The person in charge of that 180-degree turn was going to be Darwin Núñez, who went out into the field and became omnipresent. The former Benfica player was a headache for the City defense until he made a mistake. He entered, failed a heads-up, missed a couple of controls and began to be decisive in the final minutes. He beat Rúben Dias in a header that ended up in the Portuguese’s hand and that Salah sent to the cage from the penalty spot to blow up the entire ‘citizen’ reaction. Already ahead on the scoreboard and in discount time, the Uruguayan once again showed off his instinct to move in the area and head for the third goal, the signature of a dream debut with which the ‘reds’ are English football super champions.