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Van Persie delivers verdict on Liverpool loss v Man City

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Image for Van Persie delivers verdict on Liverpool loss v Man City

Ex-Manchester United forward Robin van Persie has claimed that Liverpool were “unlucky” to lose on penalties against Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday.

Joel Matip’s second-half goal meant that the two teams ended level on a goal-a-piece after 90 minutes.

However Georginio Wijnaldum was unfortunately the only player to fail to score in the resulting penalty shoot-out at Wembley.

Van Persie was impressed with how Jurgen Klopp’s men rallied in the second-half after a poor opening 45 minutes which saw them go behind thanks to Raheem Sterling’s goal against his former club.

“I think they can be proud of the second-half,” said van Persie on BT Sport 1 after the match on Sunday afternoon [05:13pm]

“They fought their way back into the game. In the first-half they were having a hard time, City played really well.

“So fair play to them, they both could have won it. They had their chances but to lose on penalties was a bit unlucky.”

OPINION

It’s easy to say that a team is unfortunate after a penalty shoot-out, but that was a poor penalty by Wijnaldum and Claudio Bravo simply had to go the right way to save the shot. It wasn’t going into the corner, it was just such an awful effort that was never going to go in as the ‘keeper guessed correctly. It’s simplistic to say that it was just luck because over the course of the 90 minutes, Manchester City were perhaps the better team. Even though Liverpool were better in the second-half, Man City’s defence did a really good job at ensuring they only scored once, especially with how many chances Mohamed Salah had. Liverpool will have better performances in the coming weeks and months, but they need to start stepping it up against Man City. It’s easier said than done but hopefully Klopp will have learned a lot about his team, and Pep Guardiola’s, at Wembley on Sunday.

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