One of the most memorable moments of last season was Crystal Palace overcoming Manchester City to win their first FA Cup title with more than 80,000 fans in attendance at Wembley Stadium. In the official opening of the 2025/26 English soccer season, Palace were once again crowned champions at Wembley, this time against Liverpool in the Community Shield in an eventful game.
It looked as if Liverpool would have little trouble confirming their favoritism when they opened the scoring just a few minutes in, taking control of the attacking play before Hugo Ekitiké scored his first goal for the Reds in official matches. However, Palace quickly sought an equalizer and managed to achieve their goal in the 17th minute, after Jean Mateta converted a penalty after Ismalia Sarr was brought down in the box by Virgil van Dijk.
However, Liverpool took the lead again by accident, as Jeremie Frimpong advanced down the right flank and tried to cross, but the ball ended up taking an awkward bounce and goalkeeper Dean Henderson got involved. The Dutch full-back tried to cross, but ended up scoring a memorable goal in the Community Shield decider.
The pace of the game slowed in the second half with very clear strategies adopted by both teams. While Liverpool tried to keep possession of the ball without speeding up their attacking actions, Crystal Palace took more risks and created the main chances.
The match stagnated for a long time in the second half with a noticeable drop in intensity, but in the final minutes Crystal Palace managed to find an equalizer. In the 77th minute, Ismalia Sarr made a break down the right flank and fired a shot just wide of the far post.
Salah fails in penalty shootout
Fortunately for the health of the players and the fans, the FA decided to eliminate the extra team in Commnunity Shield finals and we had the penalty shootout right after the end of regulation time. Naturally, some mistakes were made because it was the start of the season, but the most notable moment was the gigantic mistake that Mohammed Salah made by isolating the kick too much, capping off a terrible performance with a terrible finish. In the end, young Justin Devenny was responsible for securing Palace another historic title.