Crystal Palace won their first ever trophy through FA Cup glory at the end of 2024/25, and now they’ve also won the Community Shield, beating Liverpool on penalties to claim the first trophy of 2025/26.
Liverpool started brightly, with record signing Florian Wirtz setting up another newcomer – Hugo Ekitike – for an opener after less than four minutes. Palace responded from the spot in the 17th minute, with Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring after Virgil van Dijk was judged to have fouled Eberechi Eze inside the box. Liverpool quickly struck again, this time with Jeremie Frimpong, yet another new player for the Reds, seeing his cross cheat Dean Henderson in the Palace goal in the 21st, but Ismaila Sarr took advantage of a gap in Liverpool’s defence to level again in the 77th.
Thus the contest went to penalties, where Liverpool star Mohamed Salah missed the target, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott had their shots saved by Henderson, rendering well-taken penalties by Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai irrelevant. Mateta, Sarr and Justin Devenny scored for Palace, and it didn’t matter in the end that Eze hit the bar and Alisson Becker saved from Borna Sosa.
Teams
Palace boss Oliver Glasner arranged his defensive line with three players – Chris Richards, Maxence Lacroix and captain Marc Guehi, ahead of Henderson in goal. Adam Wharton paired up with Daichi Kamada in the middle of the park, with Tyrick Mitchell and Daniel Munoz out wide. Eze and Sarr supported Mateta in attack.
As for Liverpool, coach Arne Slot included four new players in the starting XI, leaving only goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili on the bench with Alisson given the nod. Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate were the centre-back pairing, flanked by Milos Kerkez and Frimpong. With Mac Allister not fully fit and Ryan Gravenberch missing through personal reasons, Curtis Jones and Szoboszlai acted as the two deep-lying midfielders. Wirtz was deployed in the No. 10 role, with Salah and Gakpo flanking Ekitike in attack.
Brief recap
It was always going to be interesting to see Liverpool’s new signings in action, and early signs were very promising. The move which ended with the opening goal was a brilliant one, as Wirtz displayed his full power of threading passes through tightest of spaces and Ekitike produced a top-class finish from around the edge of the box.
Liverpool mostly controlled the proceedings in the first half. Palace rarely got near Alisson’s goal, but Van Dijk, perhaps because he had made several defensive actions look easy early on, got a bit overconfident and made a late tackle on Sarr which prompted referee Chris Kavanagh to point to the spot. The complaints from the Dutch defender were pointless and Mateta was ruthless.
But it took only four minutes for the Premier League champions to get ahead again, though it took plenty of luck as well. Frimpong’s cross from the right seemed to be aimed at the run of Gakpo on the far post, but it took a strange trajectory and went over the outstretched hand of Henderson, bouncing off the post into the net.
Kamada looked to be in some discomfort and Glasner, probably sensing he needed to change something in the middle of the park anyway, withdrew the Japan international in the 29th minute and sent on Will Hughes.
The game slowed down at that point and Liverpool went to the break with a deserved lead.
The Merseysiders tried to replicate their early dominance after the restart and managed to peg Palace back for a while, but the Eagles defended well and gradually grew back into the game.
The plan of Glasner’s team seemed to be to try and exploit Liverpool’s high defensive line. Passes were frequently flung in the space behind the backs of Van Dijk and Konate, and after Mateta and Richards failed to score from headers, the approach almost bore fruit as Alisson made a point-blank save to deny Eze in the 62nd minute.
Sensing his team were losing control, Slot reacted by replacing Jones and Ekitike with Mac Allister and Wataru Endo, but it barely made any difference. Palace continued with their plan, and in the 77th minute, Wharton produced a fantastic pass down the channel between Van Dijk and Kerkez for Sarr to chase, and the Palace winger fired accurately past Alisson to set the score at 2-2.
With 10 minutes to go, Palace players appealed for another penalty as the ball struck the arm of Mac Allister. Kavanagh didn’t give it and there was a VAR check, but perhaps because the arm contact had actually set Sarr for a shot from a favourable position, there was no change of decision.
Liverpool attacked again late on, but apart from one effort from Salah which Henderson saved, there was practically nothing worthy of mention. In the 84th minute, Wirtz left the pitch to be replaced by Elliott, but to no tangible effect. Szoboszlai also had a go and prompted another save from Henderson in stoppage time, and Palace came close through Devenny, who had just replaced Guehi, but the shot trickled wide.
Deserved Palace victory
Though Liverpool had 60% of possession over the whole match, Palace certainly deserved this triumph. They stood up and raised their game when it was needed, forcing the Premier League champions to lose compass and exposing their defensive weaknesses.
Even though they are the FA Cup holders, Crystal Palace won’t be playing in the Europa League – they’ve been demoted to the Conference League due to ownership issues involving Olympique Lyon, and after what they’ve suffered on that front, this will surely be remembered as a glorious day. It was their second victory at Wembley in 2025, and Liverpool’s second defeat after the Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle.
Liverpool left thin up top
The recently completed sale of Darwin Nunez, not to mention the tragedy which took the life of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, has left Liverpool with only one striker in their senior ranks. That’s why Slot had no real firepower to send on after the withdrawal of Ekitike, and they will surely look to the market to rectify this particular problem before the transfer window closes. Even the sale of Luis Diaz, a winger who sometimes played as a ‘false nine’, has left its mark.
The Reds have been linked most heavily with Newcastle goal-machine Alexander Isak and have had one offer for his services rejected already. It was said no second bid was forthcoming, but the departure of Nunez and the money received for the Uruguay international might change their stance on that. Let’s wait and see. At this point, it cannot be disputed that they need another high-quality forward at this point.
Bright signs from big-money signings
On the other hand, Slot will be pleased with what he saw from Wirtz, Ekitike and Frimpong in this game. All three newcomers had an excellent first-half and recorded goal contributions, and the drop in their respective performances later on was arguably more down to Slot himself. The Dutchman will need to devise more tactical options for these players, but that’s completely understandable at this stage of their integration into the squad.
The season kicks off
Be that as it may, Slot has five days to learn from this defeat, before his team takes on Bournemouth at Anfield in the Premier League opener on Friday. The expectations are understandably great from a team that won the league last season and then invested over €300million in signings, and after an impressive debut season as the Liverpool head coach, Slot will have to work hard now to justify not only his reputation, but the money spent as well.
Meanwhile, Glasner obviously had a great 2024/25 too, leading his team to the first trophy in their history, and with this victory, he has shown it was no fluke. For him, the task at hand is to prepare his men to take on another big opponent, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, on Sunday.
