(Football news) With a week remaining for the new Premier League season, Liverpool inflicted some psychological damage on their rivals Manchester City with a 3-1 win in the Community Shield. The buzz around the match was centred on two strikes, Darwin Nunez and Erling Haaland and it was the Uruguayan who impressed, scoring Liverpool’s third goal in the 90 + 4th minute. The goal meant Nunez became the fourth player to score on his debut for Jurgen Klopp after Sadio Mane, Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.

Liverpool dominated the game from kick off and were rewarded when Trent Alexander-Arnold’s long range effort took a deflection from Nathan Ake and went into the back of the net in the 21st minute. With City struggling to stamp their authority, Haaland was largely a passenger for the initial stages but Pep Guardiola’s side eventually grew into the game as substitute Julian Alvarez scored the equaliser from close range in the 70th minute. However, it was Darwin Nunez who stole the show after his header hit Ruben Dias’ arm and referee Craig Dawson pointed to the spot after a VAR review.

Mohamed Salah made no mistake and gave Liverpool a valuable lead before Nunez found a goal of his own in the dying minutes of the match, heading home from close range. Speaking after the match, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said “It was good, it was really good. It is clear it will get better with time. We live in a world where everybody gets judged on first sight and that's not helpful for anybody but it happens constantly.

“In the first few games (of pre-season) we were not even close to the fitness level of today and then when [Nunez] came on, we passed each ball for him to chase it and after the third ball he was completely killed and then everybody judged his first touches and these kinds of things. It's just a joke but we have to live with that, he will deal with it brilliantly. We are patient and we know he can do good stuff. We all know they are a special species, strikers. The other thing everybody needs (are) little positives. That means goals, or goal involvements. 

"I think Darwin would have been fine even without scoring the third one because the penalty was Millie's cross and his header. The chance he had before he did really well, but Ederson reacted brilliantly. The goal was obviously the icing on the cake, so I was really pleased for him. You could see in his face, you could see in the face of all his team-mates how happy the boys are for him and that's a really good sign after that short period of time that he is with us." 

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