The English football curtain raiser has moved to the Midlands this year as the 2022 Community Shield between Liverpool and Manchester City is planned for Saturday 30th July at the King Power Stadium.
It’s the first time in ten years since the showcase opener has been played outside the capital city but it makes a lot of sense. The hoards of fans from the Northwest clubs have a much shorter and easier journey to Leicester, and it means the final of the Women’s Euro competition can take place at Wembley.
This match pits together two of the greatest coaches the Premier League has ever seen and the two teams which are far and away the strongest in the Premier League. So not only does the game promise some great Community Shield 2022 highlights and a trophy on offer, there’s a psychological edge to be had for the winners before the league season begins.
The King Power is the home of Leicester City, winner of the 2021 Community Shield, but as the game is always played between league and cup winners it falls to champions City, and cup winners Liverpool to kick off the 2022/23 entertainment. It could so easily have been Chelsea facing the Sky Blues after they were only beaten by Pool on penalties in the FA Cup final.
The latest Community Shield 2022 betting odds back Manchester City to win the trophy at SBOTOP odds of 1.68 while Liverpool are priced at 2.25 to win the spoils.
Pre-season success for both teams
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are hard at work fine tuning their teams, bedding in new signings and pushing their players towards match fitness. Manchester City will unveil Erling Braut Haaland at the Community Shield though he didn’t make an appearance in the Sky Blues warm up in the USA.
Kevin De Bruyne scored twice in Manchester City’s 2-1 win over Club America, while creative midfielder Jack Grealish had a row with some of the America players in Houston as they targeted him with some fairly robust tackles; and Kalvin Phillips made his first appearance for the Sky Blues, coming on for the second half. Next up City will take on Bayern Munich on Sunday 24th.
A much changed and undercooked Liverpool lost 4-0 to Manchester United in Bangkok on 12th July, but while Red Devils fans understandably enjoyed the outcome it didn’t worry Klopp one bit in his team’s first outing. They recovered three days later as goals from Jordan Henderson and Mo Salah gave then a hard fought 2-0 win over Crystal Palace. Liverpool then followed that up with a match against Red Bull Leipzig, and that produced an altogether different outcome from their Manchester stumble as new signing Darwin Nunez announced his arrival with a second half blitz of four goals as the Reds beat the Red Bulls 5-0.
The £85m signing started the game on the bench and watched on as Salah gave Liverpool an eighth-minute lead, and it only took him three minutes to open his account when Salah handed a penalty opportunity over on 48 minutes. Nunez slotted the spot kick home and added three more on 51, 68 and 90 minutes.
Liverpool will have a final warm up on Wednesday 27th July against Red Bull Salzburg and Nunez can expect to play some part again. But his goal-to-games ratio so far is getting the Liverpool fans giddy!
So next Saturday we’ll get the chance to see the two best teams in England come face to face in a competitive fixture with great importance. Manchester City lost to Leicester City in last season’s curtain raiser and Pep won’t want to make it two losses in two seasons. The UK public will have a first chance to see Haaland and Nunez in action and the game will be beamed live around the world. There will be no Sadio Mane for Liverpool and that will take some getting used to.
But which team is going to strike first blood?
Well, past performances can favour either team. Liverpool have had the better of the head-to-head meetings with Manchester City in the Premier League era, winning 27 to City’s 13 and there have been 18 draws in all competitions.
But Pep Guardiola’s men have had the better of the recent encounters, winning two, drawing three and losing one of the last six matches, the defeat coming in last year’s FA Cup semi-final in a 3-2 win for the Reds as Mane scored a brace.
We can’t read much into the pre-season games so far but, as has been the case in domestic football over the past five seasons, if you’re going to plump for City or the Reds then Pep’s boys just, only just, get the nod.
And the SBOTOP price of 1.68 says just that.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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