My fantastic Captain, Virgil Van Dijk, came out and gave his congratulations to Crystal Palace after they won the Community Shield.
They faced Liverpool in that game and we crumbled when it mattered. That's exactly why we ended up losing that game and the trophy that's attached to it.
Obviously, we (Liverpool fans and players) won't forget that result, but we also won't dwell on it. It's not exactly an inconsequential game like the other Pre-Seaon games we played in Hong Kong or even the one we played in Japan.
However, this is surely a game that I wish we won because it will set things straight as we get into a new season.
Just for the record, our first game of the season is on Friday. Just 4 days from now.
Now, let's talk about that game.
Team News!
Gravenberch wasn't part of the squad for our Community Shield game and it was confirmed that he sat that out because his lady gave birth a day before the game. So, big congratulations to him and his family. He also won't be available for our Friday game because of the booking he picked up in our last game of last season.
Tsimikas also wasn't part of that squad. In his case, he was left out because he's likely going to make a move to another Club. So, this surely means Robbo will be part of the squad next season to back up Kerkez in LB.
Virgil and Alisson made their way back to the lineup after missing out in our double-header fixture against Athletic Bilbao. Virgil missed that because of sickness while Ali missed that because of a personal issue he had to settle in Brazil.
All the new signings (Frimpong, Kerkez, Wirtz, Ekitike) walked into the starting line up yesterday and each of them performed really well.
First Half.
Our performance in this half of the game was very brilliant and a joy to watch. We got the first goal of the game through the brilliance of Wirtz and Ekitike. They both combined to give us the lead in the 4th minute. They also combined really well at several point in the game.
We couldn't hold onto that lead though. At the 17th minute, Crystal Palace scored an equalizer. That goal came from a penalty we conceded through a tackle that was made by Virg.
At the 20th minute, while we were singing Diogo Jota's song, Frimpong scored a fabulous goal that had me screaming out loud. Seriously! That goal is still being discussed all-over the football community this morning.
So, our first half was a really solid one. All the new players performed really well. Salah struggled though.
Second Half.
While the first half of the game was really inspiring, there's really no positive to take away from Liverpool's performance in the second half. Things started going wrong the moment we took off Ekitike without a proper striker to replace him in that forward line.
Crystal Palace felt relieved in their backline and started pushing forward. They made really good attacking threat and Alisson stood his ground in a couple of those. However, Crystal Palace still got through and got another equalizer.
Penalty Shootout.
This penalty shootout was a depressing one. It's the worst penalty shootout I've seen Liverpool play since recent years. The one last year against PSG was poor, but this particular one was stinky.
Salah who just missed a penalty last weekend again Athletic Bilbao also missed again. It wasn't just a miss that came on target. Instead, he basically shot out wide.
Macca and Harvey Elliott also missed their penalty too.
So, we just lost our chance of winning a trophy before starting a new season.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
Thumbnail Image is taken from Unsplash