Match report: Crystal Palace 2-2 Liverpool (3-2 pens)
Ed Aarons was at Wembley for us this afternoon – I’ll leave you with his report.
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Dean Henderson's reaction
I could barely hear your question (because of the noise of the Palace fans). These emotions are fantastic. We deserved that in the end – the manager said we’d get chances at 2-1 and we did.
I love the big moments, I really enjoyed that today. The homework we did for the penalties was great so thanks to everyone behind the scenes who helped me with that.
Two trophies in three months: that’s incredible. Let’s fight for the next bit of history.
Palace’s players are all smiles – not least Dean Henderson, who reinforced his reputation as one of the world’s best penalty-savers. Don’t be surprised if Henderson is a 119th-minute substitute for England at next year’s World Cup.
The year 2025 was already the greatest in Palace’s history; this just enhances it.
Crystal Palace win the Community Shield!
Devenny scores! Crystal Palace 2-2 Liverpool (3-2 pens)
Devenny bullets his penalty past Alisson to seal victory for Crystal Palace, who are winners at Wembley for the second time in three months. That’s the best penalty of the whole shootout.
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Szoboszlai scores! Palace 2-2 Liverpool
An emphatic penalty, struck so well that Henderson had no chance despite going the right way. Justin Devenny, who came on as sub right at the end of extra-time, has a kick to win it for Palace.
Sosa misses! Palace 2-1 Liverpool
The new signing Borna Sosa hits the underside of the crossbar, so the penalty shootout continues. Both teams have taken four of their five.
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Henderson saves from Elliott! Palace 2-1 Liverpool
Palace are at match point. Not a great penalty – Henderson read it and made a comfortable save to his right.
Sarr scores! Palace 2-1 Liverpool
Nonchalance itself: a walk-up to the ball and a sweet sidefoot into the corner. Alisson went the right way and had no chance.
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Gakpo scores! Palace 1-1 Liverpool Gakpo sends Henderson the wrong way. The commentators thought Alisson was off his line when he saved from Eze incidentally.
Eze misses! Palace 1-0 Liverpool Told you the keepers were good. But Alisson may have been off his line before diving to save Eze’s tame penalty.
Nope, VAR says Alisson was fine and the save stands.
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Mac Allister misses! Palace 1-0 Liverpool
Henderson makes a brilliant save, low to his left, and doffs his baseball cap to the Palace fans.
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Mateta scores! Palace 1-0 Liverpool
Nicely done, sidefooted crisply to the same side as in the match proper. Alisson went the right way this time, to his left, but couldn’t get there.
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Salah misses! Palace 0-0 Liverpool
Mo Salah completes a bad day at the office by smashing his penalty over the bar.
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Dean Henderson and Alisson both have excellent penalty records, so this could be fun.
Full time: Crystal Palace 2-2 Liverpool
And so to penalties.
90+6 min The substitute Devenny almost wins it for Palace, sidefooting just wide from 20 yards after a nice run from Eze. Alisson probably had it covered on reflection.
90+3 min: Palace substitution Justin Devenny comes on for Marc Guehi.
90+2 min The corner is half cleared and knocked back to Szoboszlai, whose shot from the edge of the area is comfortably saved by Henderson.
90 min Five minutes of added time. Guehi is down with what looks like cramp. Salah runs behind him and Lacroix comes across to concede a corner.
89 min Mac Allister clears the ball with an overhead kick and catches Hughes in the head during his follow through. Hughes stays on his feet, which may have helped Mac Allister.
88 min Salah is booked for a foul on someone.
86 min There’s no extra-time so this will go straight to penalties if there are no more goals.
85 min: Crystal Palace substitution Jefferson Lerma replaces Adam Wharton, who showed again that he is good enough to play for any team in the world.
84 min: Liverpool substitutions Harvey Elliott replaces Florian Wirtz, who peppered the match with moments of class, and Andy Robertson comes on for Milos Kerkez at left back.
83 min Sarr and Munoz gallop forward on the break for Palace. Munoz cuts the ball back to Mateta, who wafts lazily over the bar from the edge of the area.
82 min: Chance for Salah Kerkez scoots down the left and fires a cross into Salah. He gets across the defender, 12 yards out, but whacks his shot too close to Henderson.
80 min: No penalty A long cross hit the outstretched arm of Mac Allister, who mistimed his attempted header. There are plenty of times in the last seven or eight years that would have been given.
79 min: Fine defending by Kerkez! Sarr’s shot deflects over after a desperate tackle from Kerkez. He did brilliantly there. But Palace want a penalty for a handball by Mac Allister earlier in the move.
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79 min: Palace substitution Borna Sosa, a Croatian left wing-back signed from Ajax, replaces Tyrick Mitchell.
After Gakpo was muscled off the ball by Hughes, Wharton clipped a cute early pass through to Ismaila Sarr. Van Dijk had come out, looking for offside, which allowed Sarr to gallop into the space and sidefoot the ball past the outrushing Alisson. It hit the inside of the near post and ricocheted into the net.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-2 Liverpool (Sarr 77)
Palace equalise for the second time!
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74 min Frimpong is on his feet now. He’s moving gingerly but looks as if he thinks he can run it off.
73 min Frimpong is down and looks in a bit of pain. Wharton won a bouncing ball but then followed through with his studs into the side of Frimpong’s leg.
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72 min Szoboszlai’s long-range shot bounces awkwardly and is saved at the second attempt by Henderson.
71 min: Double substitution for Liverpool While the other players take a drinks break, Liverpool introduce Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister in place of Hugo Ekitike and Curtis Jones. Ekitike had a fine debut and scored the opening goal after four minutes.
69 min A decent chance for Wirtz, who shoots miles over the bar from the edge of the area. He’s better than that.
65 min Eze’s ball into the box is read by Alisson, who has radiated authority in goal. Liverpool have a helluva long-term replacement, but Giorgi Mamardashvili will have to wait his turn.
In other news, Daniel Harris is on duty for this afternoon’s Championship game.
62 min: Good save by Alisson! Palace continue to threaten. Wharton reads Szoboszlai’s pass, moves forward and slides the ball to Eze on the left of the area. He forces a left-foot shot that Alisson saves with his legs at the near post; excellent goalkeeping.
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61 min Wharton’s deep corner is headed straight at Alisson by Richards. Not a bad chance; as Ally McCoist says on TNT Sports, Richards needed to strain his neck muscles to head back across Alisson.
59 min Alisson has to come out of his area to beat Mateta to a lofted through ball. Palace are having a good spell.
57 min: Chance for Palace? Guehi’s cross from the left is nodded on by Mateta and then headed wide by the stooping Sarr in the six-yard box. He was in an offside position, though Van Dijk also got a slight touch on the ball so goodness knows.
Van Dijk’s touch probably stopped Sarr from scoring, but then without the touch Sarr would definitely have been offside.
54 min Ekitike declines the chance of a shot from the edge of the D, instead slipping an angled pass into Salah on the right side of the area. His ball across is cut out.
Palace break and Eze loses his balance in the area under pressure from Konate and Jones. It wasn’t a foul.
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52 min: Chance for Ekitike An excellent move down the left from Liverpool. Kerkez finds Wirtz, who arrows a precise low cross towards Ekitike, who sweeps a first-time shot wide of the near post. That was a decent chance.
49 min Munoz tries to make another lung-busting run and is accidentally tripped by the referee Chris Kavanagh. I think he’s okay.
46 min Ekitike misses a good chance inside 45 seconds, heading Kerkez’s cross wide from six yards. I think he was fractionally offside so it might not have counted anyway.
46 min Liverpool get the second half under way. No changes at the break, though the 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha was warming up on the pitch during the interval.
Half-time reading
“Hey Rob, there’s fitba on today too,” writes Simon McMahon. “Tannadice is bathed in summer sunshine, and the United fans are basking in the warm glow of a famous result in Vienna on Thursday night, and now a brilliant double by new signing Ivan Drago Dolcek to put United 2-1 up against Hearts after Lawrence Shankland had opened the scoring from the penalty spot. It’s like 1984 all over again, so looking forward to a bit of FGTH at half time, but without the fear of an imminent nuclear holocaust …”
Half time: Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
Plenty of fun in the Wembley sun, where Liverpool new boys Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong scored either side of Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty for Palace.
The timing of both Liverpool goals was notable. Ekitike scored inside four minutes on his debut. And Frimpong’s goal came after 20 minutes, 20 seconds, just as the Liverpool supporters were celebrating their eternal No20, Diogo Jota.
45+4 min Wirtz, on the left of the area, clips a nice pass to Frimpong on the edge of the area. The ball won’t sit down and Frimpong shoots over.
Wirtz has strolled through the game; he looks a class act.
45+2 min Munoz is found in space once again and flashes a really dangerous ball across the face of goal. Sarr, who was trying to get on the end of it, went flying after a slight touch from Konate; there’s no suggestion that it was a foul.
45 min There will be seven minutes of added time. Wirtz has just been booked for kicking the ball away.
43 min Konate is booked for tripping Mateta to thwart a Palace counter-attack.
39 min It’s been a patchy performance from Liverpool’s refurbished side. To expect anything more at this stage of the season with four new players would be unrealistic. All the new players have had good moments, Ekitike’s emphatic early goal being the pick of them. (Unless Frimpong meant his goal, in which case close the book on the Ballon d’Or.)
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36 min Eze’s nice crossfield pass releases Munoz, the ever-willing bullet train on the right. His cross bounces past a couple of players and is hooked over from 15 yards by Hughes. Tough chance.
Munoz is indefatigability personified; so much fun to watch.
33 min Nothing much has happened since the drinks/injury break. It’s a very hot day so occasional longueurs are inevitable.
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30 min Szoboszlai pings another nice crossfield pass to Frimpong, this time near the byline. He hooks it back to Wirtz, who miscontrols the bouncing ball. Szoboszlai is enjoying himself in a deeper role.
29 min: Crystal Palace substitution Hughes comes on for Kamada, who is able to walk off but looks a little woebegone. It looks like a muscle injury of some description.
28 min Palace midfielder Daichi Kamada is also down; in fact, Will Hughes is getting ready to replace him.
26 min Alisson comes off his line confidently to claim Wharton’s ball into the area. Ibrahima Konate is on his haunches and has an eye problem; I think he’s motioning that he needs some kind of spray.
24 min Time for a drinks break.
Szoboszlai pinged a Kroosian crossfield pass out to Frimpong. He ran at Mitchell, into the area, and stabbed a chipped cross that looped over Henderson and swerved into the far corner. I assume it was an intended cross; if Frimpong meant to score from there, he’s a genius.
The timing of the goal – 20 mins, 20 seconds – is remarkable: that was the shirt number of Diogo Jota, and Liverpool’s supporters were applauding him when the ball drifted into the net.
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GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool (Frimpong 21)
Another Liverpool new boy scores on his debut!
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20 min: Chance for Mitchell Palace’s wing-backs almost combine for a second goal. Munoz gallops down the right and arcs a deep cross over the head of Frimpong. Mitchell, arriving late, screws a difficult volley back across goal and well wide.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Liverpool (Mateta 17 pen)
Jean-Philippe Mateta sweeps the penalty into the net, with Alisson diving the wrong way, and celebrates by high-kicking the corner flag.
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15 min: Penalty to Palace! Van Dijk is penalised for a lazy tackle on Sarr just inside the area. Seconds before that, Mateta ran through on goal and tried to go round Alisson, who made an excellent challenge with his feet. They’re now checking both the penalty and whether Mateta was offside for the original chance.
Both are cleared by VAR so the penalty stands.
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14 min A gorgeous flick from Ekitike on the halfway line sparks a Liverpool break that ends with Henderson making a good diving save from Gakpo. Turns out Gakpo was fractionally offside, though Henderson didn’t know that.
12 min Eze is pushed over by Konate 25 yards from goal. Mitchell touches the free-kick off to Eze, whose shot deflects behind for another corner. Ekitike heads this one away.
10 min Kamada wriggles into the area and wins Palace’s first corner off Frimpong. Eze takes, Konate heads clear and Liverpool don’t make the most of a four-on-two break.
7 min Fair to say Palace’s gameplan didn’t involve going behind inside four minutes. They’ve started to get on the ball now rather than sit deep and wait for the chance to break.
Hugo Ekitike has scored inside four minutes on his Liverpool debut. It was a fine finish, driven across Henderson from the edge of the area after some neat interplay with Florian Wirtz. Cracking goal.
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GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool (Ekitike 4)
Welcome to Liverpool.
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3 min A relaxed and confident start from Liverpool, who have had almost all of the ball in the first few minutes. Palace don’t mind that too much given their counter-attacking prowess.
1 min Crystal Palace, in their snazzy new home strip, kick off from left to right. Liverpool are in their wonder white (sic) change strip.
There was supposed to be a minute’s silence for Diogo Jota. Alas, a minority decided to act up. The mind boggles.
There will be a minute’s silence in memory of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died tragically last month. Liverpool legend Ian Rush and Palace chairman have also laid wreaths on the Wembley pitch.
A reminder of the teams
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1) Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Mateta.
Subs: Benitez, Lerma, Clyne, Hughes, Edouard, Sosa, Esse, Devenny, Solomon Cardines.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1) Alisson; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Jones, Szoboszlai; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Endo, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Elliott, Robertson, Nyoni, Doak, Ngumoha.
Referee Chris Kavanagh.
There’s no Ryan Gravenberch in the Liverpool squad today – he became a father last night.
Wirtz named Germany’s player of the year
Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz has been voted Germany’s player of the year for 2024-25 after another standout season at Bayer Leverkusen while Freiburg’s Julian Schuster has won the coach’s accolade. Germany teammates Giulia Gwinn and Ann-Katrin Berger have to share the women’s player of the year award after both received 608 valid votes from members of the Association of German Sports Journalists (VDS) in the yearly poll organized by Kicker magazine.
Ed Aarons on Palace’s underwhelming summer (so far)
Palace’s planning has been severely disrupted by the uncertainty surrounding which European competition they will play in. STeve Parish spent most of Friday at the court of arbitration for sport in Switzerland as the club attempt to have their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League overturned. Oliver Glasner again revealed his frustration during the Austria tour, saying he had been “promised that we would be more active and bring in the new players earlier this year”.
Jonathan Wilson on Liverpool’s transfer business
The thrill of the signings is rooted in the pristine possibility, untarnished by experience, of what they could achieve together, but an inevitable accompaniment to that projection is the possibility of failure. The uncertainty of five new signings allows Liverpool to dream, but it also exposes them to doubt.
Crystal Palace team news
Oliver Glasner picks the same XI that made history by winning the FA Cup final against Manchester City. Their new signings Borna Sosa and Walter Benitez are among the subs.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1) Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Eze; Mateta.
Subs: Benitez, Lerma, Clyne, Hughes, Edouard, Sosa, Esse, Devenny, Solomon Cardines.
Liverpool team news
The four big summer signings all start for the champions. Their new goalkeeper Giorgo Mamaradashvili – whose move from Valencia was arranged last summer – is on the bench.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1) Alisson; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Jones, Szoboszlai; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Endo, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Elliott, Robertson, Nyoni, Doak, Ngumoha.
Read our Premier League fans’ previews
Liverpool
We’ve made some great signings, raided the Bundesliga for Frimpong, Wirtz and Ekitiké and swooped south for Kerkez, with more to come. Our target is clear then: to finish top again and go further in Europe. And we must try without one of our stars, Diogo Jota, whose loss is immeasurable, of course to his family first and foremost. What he meant to the boss, the team, each individual player and the supporters has been evident in the outpourings of love and respect shown in these past weeks. We won’t forget him and in doing all we can to succeed we will honour his memory.
Preamble
Thank heavens for the Community Shield. In an age of 24/7/365 football – when seasons, competitions and opinions blur into one headache-inducing mass – the role of the Community Shield as the curtain raiser for the new English season is more important than ever.
The reality is more complicated – the EFL kicked off nine days ago – but we’re not here for that or to talk about. We’re here to watch FA Cup winners Crystal Palace meet runaway champions Liverpool on a sweltering afternoon at Wembley.
In different ways, both teams have had difficult summers. Palace were demoted to the Conference League, have barely spent a penny on players and could lose Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze before the transfer window closes.
Liverpool have spent like never before, signing Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong for around £250m. They recouped more than half of that with the sales of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Jarell Quansah and others. But the summer of 2025 will always be remembered for the shocking death of Diogo Jota, aged 28, in a car crash.
Life goes on, football goes on, but today’s game will be played in shadow.
Kick off 3pm.
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