Former Manchester United and Arsenal hero Robin van Persie has confessed that he was impressed by what he saw from Liverpool in the FA Community Shield game against Manchester City.
A second half goal from substitute Joel Matip sent the game into a penalty shootout where the reigning Premier League champions beat us 5-4.
The Reds didn’t enjoy a particularly good first 45 minutes, but they came out firing in the second half and were the better team.
City showed flashes of their brilliance, but it was similar to our performance against Barcelona at Anfield in the Champions League – basically, we dominated the game.
Raheem Sterling scored the opening goal in the first half, but it was said second half performance by Liverpool that garnered the attention of van Persie.
“I think they can be proud of the second-half. They fought their way back into the game. In the first-half they were having a hard time, City played really well,” he told BT Sport (via Live4Liverpool).
“So fair play to them, they both could have won it. They had their chances but to lose on penalties was a bit unlucky.”
I can only agree with the former Dutch international – the game could have gone either way, and he doesn’t explicitly say it but I reckon he thinks we should have won it in the 90.
Penalties was a cruel way to lose the Community Shield, but it would have been even worse to simply lose 1-0 from a solo Sterling effort.
We made a great account of ourselves in the second half. It would’ve been nice to have another piece of silverware, but the ‘curtain opener’ for the season shows it’s going to be another exciting campaign!