Crystal Palace celebrated another Wembley triumph with a 3-2 penalty shoot-out win over Liverpool in the Community Shield, after drawing 2-2 with the Premier League champions in normal time.
Palace clinched their first-ever major trophy with FA Cup glory here in May against Man City and twice came from behind to eventually defeat Liverpool, with sub Justin Devenny striking the winning spot-kick after his goalkeeper Dean Henderson had saved two and Mohamed Salah had skied another.
It was delight for the Palace supporters – and a welcome distraction from their appeal hearing at CAS, with the answer as to whether they will be playing in the Europa League or Conference League this season set to come on Monday. Their fans made their feelings known about UEFA, who demoted them due to multi-club ownership issues, with banners in the stands.
Liverpool’s £265m worth of summer signings looked to be the story of the day, with Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong on the scoresheet and Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz connecting during some slick attacks. Ekitike and Wirtz also had chances to put the game beyond Palace’s reach after the break.
But Arne Slot’s side looked vulnerable throughout and a clumsy Virgil van Dijk challenge on Ismaila Sarr allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta to score from the spot and the Dutchman was out of position when Adam Wharton fed Sarr to fire Palace’s second equaliser in off a post.
Palace, who had forced Alisson into a fine stop from Eberechi Eze, were then denied a penalty when the ball appeared to strike Alexis Mac Allister’s lifted arm. Devenny also drove inches wide with the last kick of the game – but he and Palace had their winning moment in the end in a dramatic shoot-out.
