Man City Wins Community Shield After Penalty Shootout Victory Against Man Utd
Man City 1-1 Man Utd (7-6 on pens): Premier League champions win Community Shield
Premier League champions Manchester City have won the Community Shield after a 1-1 draw at Wembley was decided on penalties.
As expected, there were plenty of experimental names on the pitch, with Nico O’Reilly earning his first-ever minutes for Man City, starting in midfield with Mateo Kovacic and James McAtee.
Meanwhile, Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag started Lisandro Martinez in left-back as Jonny Evans partnered Harry Maguire in the middle.
City dominated the early exchanges as Man Utd tried to hit their rivals on the counter, just as they did in last season’s FA Cup final.
McAtee struck the post in the 24th minute under pressure from Jonny Evans, coming very close to beating a helpless Andre Onana.
The Red Devils should have had the ball in the back of the net after a wonderful passing move in the box.
Amad Diallo worked well with Casemiro and instead of shooting, decided to try to assist Mason Mount, who could not get near the pass across goal.
Man Utd captain Fernandes had the ball in the net with a beautiful curling effort into the top corner, but he was offside.
Ten Hag made four changes in the 59th minute as Scott McTominay, Harry Amass, Alejandro Garnacho and Toby Collyer came on.
Marcus Rashford missed a sitter late on, striking Mason Mount’s inch-perfect pass onto the post with his left foot with only Ederson to beat.
Man Utd had a deserved lead with nine minutes remaining thanks to substitute Garnacho.
Found by Fernandes, the Argentine winger cut in from the right to find the bottom corner with his right foot, scoring against Man City at Wembley just as he did in the FA Cup final victory in May.
Seven minutes later the Premier League champions were level through Bernardo Silva, who headed in Oscar Bobb’s cross to give Andre Onana no chance.
Neither side could find a winner before the full-time whistle as the match headed to penalties.
Captain Fernandes stepped up to convert the first penalty before his Portugal team-mate and goalscorer Silva had his spot-kick saved by Onana.
The next miss did not come until Ederson palmed Jadon Sancho’s strike onto the post from Man Utd’s fourth attempt.
This came after Diogo Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho scored, with successful penalties from Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Savinho making it 3-3 with a spot-kick each remaining.
Casemiro sent his fellow Brazilian Ederson the wrong way before the Man City goalkeeper stepped up himself to confidently send Onana the wrong way.
After goals from Scott McTominay, Matheus Nunes. Lisandro Martinez and Ruben Dias, Evans stepped up to blaze the ball over the bar, with Manuel Akanji – who missed the decisive penalty to knock Switzerland out of Euro 2024 – scored to hand the Premier League champions the Community Shield.
