By Daily Sports Nigeria on July 30, 2022

English heavyweights Manchester City and Liverpool will get the new campaign off when they lock horns for the chance to lift the Community Shield.

Pep Guardiola’s side were crowned Premier League champions for the fourth time in the last five seasons, pipping Liverpool yet again to the title.

For the Reds they were crowned FA Cup winners following a pulsating penalty shootout win against Chelsea.

The 100th Community Shield will hold at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium, as the Wembley stadium will host the final of the women’s European Championship between England and Germany.

For Liverpool they will go into today’s tie with the hope of winning a first Community Shield since 2006.

Under the leadership of Steven Gerrard, Liverpool edged Chelsea 2-1 thanks to goals from John Arne and Peter Crouch.

Legendary Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko, who was a new signing for Chelsea, equalized for the Blues coached by Jose Mourinho.

And for City their last triumph in the Shield came in 2019 following a 5-4 penalty shootout win after regulation time ended 1-1.

Speaking ahead of the tie, Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson made the clear their target is to emerge victorious.

“It’s another chance to win silverware and we haven’t won it before,” Henderson said while speaking to Liverpoolfc.com.

“So of course we want to go there and we want to win the game and we want to win the trophy.”

“We look in good shape, so hopefully come Saturday we’re raring to go and we can get the result we want against City.”

And for City boss Pep Guardiola, he said it is important for his side to begin the season on a positive note.

“Yeah, for us a title to win it is better, better than losing,” he said in his pre-match press conference.

“It is good for City, not just for the players. For all of us.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool treatment room has been well-occupied during the period of summer friendlies, and Klopp has confirmed that Alisson Becker will miss out the Community Shield tie due to his abdominal problem.

Diogo Jota’s hamstring injury will see him miss out, while Kostas Tsimikas is also out after picking up a knock in training.

Calvin Ramsay and Caoimhin Kelleher have also been nursing physical problems in pre-season, so Adrian may be required in goal.

Roberto Firmino has been strongly linked with a move to Juventus in recent days, but the Brazil international should nevertheless battle Darwin Nunez for the number nine spot here.

As for Man City, Ruben Dias was able to complete 57 minutes of the win over Bayern after battling through his injury and illness woes, but Aymeric Laporte remains sidelined with a knee injury.

The trio of John Stones, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan were all unable to travel to the USA for pre-season but will be back at Guardiola’s disposal here, with the former and Nathan Ake ready to take some of the defensive burden off of Dias’s shoulders.

And new signing Erling Haaland was only given 41 minutes of action in Green Bay but is sure to lead the line ahead of Julian Alvarez, while fellow new arrival Kalvin Phillips should settle for a place on the bench.

Source Complete Sports Nigeria

Posted July 30, 2022

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