Manchester City and Liverpool - separated by a single point at the top of the Premier League table at the close of the last campaign - will kick-off the new season at the end of the month in the FA Community Shield.
The annual season curtain-raiser, which sees the winners of the Premier League face the winners of the FA Cup, will take place on Saturday 30th July.
As opposed to the usual venue of Wembley Stadium, the match will be held at the King Power Stadium - the home of Leicester City - due to the Women’s European Championships.
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Pep Guardiola’s side beat Liverpool to the Premier League title with a dramatic victory on the final day of the season, while Jurgen Klopp’s team knocked the Blues out of the FA Cup with a 3-2 semi-final win at Wembley.
In the league, matches at both Anfield and the Etihad Stadium finished 2-2; as Manchester City extended their unbeaten run over the Merseyside club to five matches.
The two teams last met in the FA Community Shield in 2019, with Gabriel Jesus scoring the winning penalty after the match finished 1-1 in normal time. Raheem Sterling’s 12th minute goal was cancelled out by a Joel Matip strike, as Manchester City beat their North-West rivals to yet another piece of silverware.
This season’s meeting will potentially hand competitive debuts to City’s Erling Haaland and Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez, after both sides signed highly-rated young forwards during the ongoing summer transfer window.
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Pep Guardiola has also added Kalvin Phillips, Stefan Ortega and Julian Alvarez to his squad, and all are in-line to potentially feature during the show-piece event.
Meanwhile, the FA have announced which match officials will be involved in proceedings at the King Power Stadium for the Community Shield clash on Saturday 30th July.
Match Referee
Craig Pawson, who took charge of the 2022 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea, will referee the Community Shield Final between Liverpool and Manchester City at the end of the month.
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The 43 year-old refereed 39 matches last season, showing 154 yellow cards and six red cards.
Pawson’s last game involving the Sky Blues was a 0-2 win at Turf Moor over Burnley in the Premier League in early April.
Assistant Referees
Pawson will be accompanied at the King Power by Assistant Referees Harry Lennard and Nick Hopton. The Reserve Assistant Referee for the fixture will be Tim Wood.
Video Assistant Referees
The VAR for the match will be Premier League referee John Brooks, and the 32 year-old will be alongside Assistant Video Assistant Referee Lee Betts.
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Fourth Official
Darren England has been named as the Fourth Official for the match, with the referee overseeing conduct within the two dugouts, and the behaviour of managers Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp
Topics: Community Shield, Liverpool, Manchester City, Football
Harry Winters