Manchester City opened the 2024-2025 season with a victory over Manchester United as they clinched the 2024 Community Shield at Wembley Stadium earlier today, August 10, 2024.
Manchester United showed a lot of promise in the game and even had an earlier lead scored by Bruno Fernandes canceled for offside. The temporal setback didn’t shake Manchester City as they continued with their attacking-minded style of football.
The first half of the game ended in a 0-0 draw and the second half looked like it would end in the same fashion before Fernandes assisted Alejandro Garnacho for the match opener in the 82nd minute of the encounter.
Unfortunately for coach Erik Ten Hag and his boys, they couldn’t hold on to the lead as Oscar Bobb assisted Bernardo Silva to grab the equalizer in the 89th minute.
Afterward, the two Premier League giants failed to score as the game had to be decided via penalties. Players from both sides converted all their kicks in the first 6 rounds before Jonny Evans failed to continue with the pattern in United’s 7th kick of the shootout.
With that miss, the ball was in the court of Manuel Akanji to convert his and win the 2024 Community Shield for Manchester City which he did confidently as the game ended in a 7-6 win for Guardiola’s team via penalties.
“I let the others shoot first because when you miss a penalty, you don’t go into the next one with that much confidence. I told Ederson I would shoot it down the middle in training, so I did it, and it went in”, Manuel Akanji told ITV after the game.
“It wasn’t easy. We played well, United got a bit better before it went to 1-0. Then it was a great cross from Oscar [Bobb] and Bernardo’s header.
“Ederson is probably the best penalty taker in our team, Erling [Haaland] as well. When Ederson takes the penalty I know it is a goal.
On winning the Community Shield: “It is a great start to the season; I haven’t won the Community Shield yet, so I’m really happy that I got this trophy as well, and we look forward to hopefully winning the next one soon.”
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