Football: Liverpool start their season with a penalty shootout defeat to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield, despite a goal from Hugo Ekitike
Despite making some key signings, the English champions missed out on a chance to lift a trophy against the winner of the last Cup on Sunday, in the opening match of the 2025-26 season at Wembley.
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An opening setback for the Reds . Against Crystal Palace , Liverpool started the new season with a penalty shootout defeat in the Community Shield (2-2, 2-3 on penalties), the traditional season-opening match at Wembley between the reigning champions and the Cup winners on Sunday, August 10. Having won the Premier League last year without having really recruited since the departure of Jürgen Klopp , the club from the banks of the Mersey was nevertheless carried by those who arrived this summer before the break. Only to be overtaken on the scoreboard and finally lose at the end of a session, notably marked by a miss from Mohamed Salah.
At the start of the match, former PSG and Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike needed just four minutes in competitive play to find the back of the net from the edge of the box, after a pass from German Florian Wirtz, who had arrived from Leverkusen. This was before Jeremie Frimpong, also from Bayer, scored a second goal in an emotional moment.
While the Kop digested the equalizer of another Frenchman, Jean-Philippe Mateta (17th), by paying tribute to Diogo Jota, who died in a road accident at the beginning of July , the new piston scored a perfect lob when the clock showed 20'20", like the shirt number of the Portuguese winger. A brilliant wink of fate to salute his memory, while the moment of reflection in his honor before the match had not been fully respected in the stands.
However, Ibrahima Konaté's teammates lowered their flag after the break, like Hugo Ekitike, who missed two big chances to be sent off in the 70th minute. That was until the final straw came when Ismaïla Sarr put the Eagles back in the game (77th minute), taking advantage of a poor positioning by Virgil van Dijk, who had already scored the penalty to make it 1-1.
With this victory, Crystal Palace secured their first title in this competition. Liverpool, meanwhile, will begin their defense of their league crown with a home game against Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday. But Arne Slot's men can take comfort in the fact that such a setback doesn't necessarily bode well for the future: the Community Shield winners have only won the Premier League at the end of the season once since 2011.
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