Gunners blank City to win Shield
Print Edition
ARSENAL, who went nine years without a trophy before winning the FA Cup in May, collected its second piece of silverware in three months when it crushed champion Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield at Wembley in north London yesterday.
Arsenal thoroughly deserved its emphatic win in the traditional curtain-raiser to the new English season with goals from Santi Cazorla after 21 minutes, Aaron Ramsey after 42 and a stunning long-range third from Olivier Giroud just past the hour.
City was without seven players who played in the World Cup while Arsenal was missing its three German World Cup winners Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski.
But the Gunners, fielding three debutantes including 35-million pound (US$58.71 million) striker Alexis Sanchez, were far sharper than City which looks like it has plenty of work to do before the start of the new English Premier League campaign this weekend.
At Anfield, Liverpool warmed up for the start of its league campaign with a Philippe Coutinho-inspired 4-0 friendly win over Borussia Dortmund yesterday.
Brendan Rodgers’s side dominated its final preseason match with Brazilian playmaker Coutinho the most impressive performer as he scored one goal and had a hand in another.
Coutinho, who will be expected to carry much of Liverpool’s creative burden following the sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona, was a constant menace throughout as Daniel Sturridge, Dejan Lovren and Jordan Henderson also got their names on the scoresheet against German club Dortmund.
Defensive signings
Liverpool, looking to gone one better after finishing runner-up to Manchester City in the Premier League last season, handed debuts to new defensive signings Javier Manquillo and Lovren while Sturridge had shaken off a hamstring injury to start in attack.
Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp had only one of Germany’s quartet of World Cup-winning players at his disposal in the form of Kevin Grosskreutz, who remained on the bench.
Liverpool’s passing looked crisper than that of their Bundesliga counterparts in the early stages, and Coutinho created the first opening with a weighted ball for Raheem Sterling who saw his shot beaten away by Mitchell Langerak in the Dortmund goal.
Coutinho was instrumental in Liverpool’s opening goal in the 10th minute when he played a first-time pass which sent Sturridge clear and he angled a shot past Langerak into the corner of the net.
Rodgers, with one eye on the visit of Southampton in their opening league game, made a number of substitutions throughout the second period as Lucas Leiva, Jordan Ibe, Rickie Lambert, Jose Enrique, Martin Kelly and Joe Allen were all introduced.
In Sydney, Italian league champion Juventus staged a strong second-half rally to win 3-2 over A-League All Stars, led by Alessandro Del Piero, in a preseason friendly yesterday.
Fernando Llorente, Paul Pogba and Simone Pepe scored second half goals as the ‘Old Lady’ came from behind twice against an A-League team which had goals from Marcelo Carrusca and Tomi Juric.
Juventus started with a near full-strength line up, including Italian internationals Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo, Argentine Carlos Tevez, and France stars Patrice Evra and Pogba.
Del Piero, who is currently without a contract for the 2014-15 season after two years at Sydney FC, was substituted after 63 minutes to warm embraces from former Juventus teammates and a standing ovation from the 55,000 crowd.
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