Agency, 11 August: Crystal Palace have claimed the Community Shield title for the first time in the club’s history. In the final match held on Sunday night, Palace beat Liverpool 3–2 in a penalty shootout at Wembley Stadium after the game ended 2–2 in regulation time.
In the shootout, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Ismaïla Sarr, and Justin Devenny converted their penalties for Palace, while Eberechi Eze and Borna Sosa missed. For Liverpool, only Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai found the net, with Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott having their shots saved by Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson, and Mohamed Salah hitting the crossbar.
Liverpool had given debuts to four new signings, and it was one of them—Hugo Ekitike—who opened the scoring in the 4th minute from a Florian Wirtz pass. Palace responded in the 17th minute when Mateta struck to level the score at 1–1.
Just four minutes later, Jeremie Frimpong restored Liverpool’s lead with a goal from Szoboszlai’s assist. However, in the 77th minute, Sarr equalized once again for Palace, finishing off a pass from Wharton. With no further goals in regular time, the match went to penalties, where Palace held their nerve to lift the trophy.
