Match Preview - Community Shield - Liverpool vs Man City - Key Battle, Teams, Prediction

Liverpool will face Manchester City in the Community Shield final at the King Power Stadium tomorrow. The clash will kick-off at 5:00pm.

Neither side has any real form heading into the match. Both Liverpool and Manchester City have been completing pre-season programmes.

However, if history is anything to go by, the final should be relatively close.

Key Battle - Darwin Nunez vs Erling Haaland

Nunez and Haaland have arrived in England with big reputations. Both strikers have joined their respective clubs this summer.

So, the Community Shield final will be the first time Nunez and Haaland go up against each other wearing their new club colours.

Goals ultimately decide big games. We do have a feeling that one of the forwards could win the match for their side.

Haaland, 22, is a goal machine. The Norway international scored 85 goals in 88 appearances for Borussia Dortmund.

Nunez on the other hand is a lesser player in terms of numbers. The 23-year-old found the back of the net 47 times in 84 appearances for Benfica.

But, Nunez is clearly still a capable player. It will be intriguing seeing both strikers going up against each other for the first time in England.

Team News

Neither Alisson or Diogo Jota will feature against Manchester City. Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said the following about the pair.

"Ali trained today more than the day before, so he will definitely be available for Fulham, but not for the weekend,” said the German in his pre-match press conference, as quoted by the Evening Standard.

"Diogo is not here with us so how could he play a football game? It will take a while, unfortunately."

In team news for Manchester City, Aymeric Laporte is reportedly unavailable due to fitness issues. But, Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and John Stones are all available after missing their pre-season tour of the United States.

Previous Meeting

Liverpool's last meeting against Manchester City came in the FA Cup semi-finals.

The Reds secured a 3-2 victory over the Citizens. Sadio Mane's brace was the difference between the two sides.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was thrilled with the performance of his team.

He told the club's official website the following post-game: "I think so (one of the best performances from Klopp's Liverpool team), it was the feeling I had after the game – or when I saw the first half – because of the quality of the opponent, which is why in the second half they demonstrated how good they really are. So, denying them in so many moments is so difficult and creating your own opportunities, using them, is obviously very difficult as well. The first half was outstanding in pretty much all parts of the game, I would say.

"In the second half, they scored – like we did in the previous game – an early goal, then it's clear, it opens up. No football player on the planet feels safe against City with a 3-1 lead, it is always clear what they can do. There were moments when we defended well, but they were one time through and it was like, 'Oops!' It was really good; yes, we needed Ali, what a game he played, but had our own moments as well and could've decided the game earlier. We didn't do it and that makes it a bit more special – 3-0 against City would feel kind of strange. 3-2 is a fair result and this was still good enough to bring us to the final."

Prediction

This is always a tough fixture to provide a prediction for. But, we are confident that Liverpool can get the job done against Manchester City.

The Reds have shown in the past that they are more than capable of beating the Citizens in one-off games.

We have a funny feeling that history might repeat itself.

Liverpool 2 Manchester City 1