Community Shield
Liverpool vs. Manchester City
The Community Shield takes place on Saturday evening at Leicester’s King Power Stadium as FA Cup winners Liverpool take on Premier League champions Manchester City. The Community Shield is the annual curtain raiser for the season and takes place a weekend before the actual games begin. Some see it as a glorified friendly but the team does win a trophy or shield at the end of the game and it counts albeit low in the rankings.
Liverpool have played four friendlies during pre-season winning two games and losing two games. They have brought in Fabio Carvalho, Darwin Nunez and Calvin Ramsay with Sadio Mane leaving the club to move to Bayern Munich. It’s been a mixed pre-season and Darwin Nunez despite scoring four goals has had several poor moments. This game will be a good test for Klopp and co.
Manchester City have played two friendlies and won both with De Bruyne scoring two goals and Erling Haaland also getting his first goal. Their preparation started a few weeks ago so it will be interesting to see how long the players last compared to Liverpool. City still look as fluid as ever and everyone will have their eyes on Haaland.
This should be a fun game and a chance for both teams to lay down a marker for the season. I doubt Nunez will start but he should feature while it will be interesting to see how Alvarez and Carvalho fare. Plenty of excitement to finally get the season running.
Trophée des Champions
Paris Saint Germain vs. Nantes
The French version of the Community Shield with Ligue 1 winners PSG taking on Coupe de France winners Nantes. PSG have had a rebirth of sorts over the summer with Galtier coming in as the manager and Ocampos as the director of football. They will of course still be favourites for the league and domestic trophies and all eyes will be on the Champions League. Fans will want to see more fluid football after what they saw under Pochettino. Nantes finished ninth in the table last season and this will be a good opportunity for the team to get an early upset in.