Winners of the Community Shield (CS) on 15 occasions (most recently in 2006) Liverpool face Manchester City for the 12th time since Jürgen Klopp’s appointment in 2015 (W6, D3, L2). These matches have featured 3.09 goals on average, almost evenly split between halves, with 53% coming in the second half.
This will be the seventh CS final since 1980 to see a double-winner from the previous season face the top-flight runner up. Encouragingly for Liverpool, the league runners up on the day have won two of the last three CS clashes in that category, while Klopp’s personal record against Guardiola is: W8, D2, L6.
Manchester City, meanwhile, won last season’s CS, and it represented the first of four domestic trophies they won in 2018/19. Overall, Pep Guardiola’s men are unbeaten in their last seven matches at Wembley (W6, D1), scoring a whopping 16 goals (to just one conceded) across those matches.
Having won six of the last eight available domestic trophies, City is natural favourites to add another cup to their cabinet. Last season, they won 32 of the 37 Premier League matches they entered as favorites (86.49%) – the highest ratio in the division.
Players to watch: Liverpool duo Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino both have three goals and two assists across the five last H2Hs vs City.
Raheem Sterling (MCI) has yet to score against his old club but has two assists for City against the Reds – one in each half, both yielding L/R-footed shots into the goal.
Stat attack: Over half (six) of the 11 H2Hs since Klopp’s arrival at Anfield have featured goals in both halves.
The last 11 H2Hs have yielded an average of 4.45 yellow cards per-match, with City taking 25 yellows (to Liverpool’s 24) across that period.
Furthermore, seven of those matches have featured five total cards or more.
Will not play
Mendy B.
(Knee Injury)
Match Information
Referee: Atkinson M. (Eng),
Venue: Wembley Stadium (London)
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