FA Cup holders Leicester City took on Premier League champions Manchester City in a battle to secure this season’s first piece of silverware. In what is often considered as the campaign curtain-raiser, the Community Shield trophy heads to the cabinets at King power Stadium. Final score 1-0.Pep Guardiola sent out a combined line-up with several youth players, without Kevin De Bruyne and with the new signing Jack Grealish on the bench. Brandon Rogers did not include African attackers Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho in the starting eleven but overall the line-up of the Foxes looked like they were taking this match more seriously.Regardless, Citizens had the first opportunity to score – in the 6th minute, Kasper Schmeichel reacted well to deny a long-range free kick from Ilkay Gundogan towards the top left corner.🏆 2000: League Cup🏆 2009: League One🏆 2014: Championship🏆 2016: Premier League🏆 2021: FA Cup🏆 2021: Community ShieldLeicester City, what a club 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/txs3C3oKlz— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) August 7, 2021 Twelve minutes alter, Leicester had their first massive chance – Jamie Vardy fashioned a shot from the edge of the box after receiving an accurate pass. Zackary Steffen made a stunning save to stop the effort from flying into the bottom left corner.Leicester continued attacking – in two minutes Vardy and Ayoze Perez tried but failed to score.Man City’s youngster Samuel Edozie tried in the 28th minute – he found space inside the box to shoot after collecting a short pass, but it’s a wasted effort as it flew well wide of the left post.The intensity died down a bit until the last couple of minutes of the first half – first Gundogan took a shot after receiving a good pass, but his effort from the edge of the box went just over the crossbar.Vardy’s opportunity followed – and what a opportunity that was! He was totally unmarked and fired a shot towards goal from a few yards out, but Steffen reacted superbly to deflect the shot and send the ball only to his right post.Man City opened the second half better – Gundogan again found himself in a promising position and wasted a promising chance. He took the rebound on the edge of the box but blazed the ball high over the crossbar.In the 59th minute, Algerian star Riyad Mahrez could have made it one-nil but failed to convert a great counter-attack into a lead.It was an interesting three quarters of the match, with both team trying constantly to get close to the opponent’s goal, little to no holding back.Grealish started his Man City career in the 65th minute while Zambian starlet Daka came in in the 71st for the Foxes. French defender with Senegalese roots Boubakary Soumare also came into play a minute later.Lack of intensity was evident in the last fifteen minutes of the match and it was broken by a reckless penalty made by Man City’s defender Nathan Ake.Nigerian striker Iheanacho continued with the great form he was in in the previous campaign by confidently converting the penalty into a late lead for the Foxes.Kelechi Iheanacho puts The Foxes 1-0 up at Wembley Stadium! 🦊#CommunityShield @LCFC pic.twitter.com/qqGf7Nu8Ey— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) August 7, 2021 Closing minutes passed in desperate attempts of the Citizens to turn the score around or at least equalize, but they failed – even with their mega-signing Jack Grealish.Premier League starts soon – competition champions from Manchester will face Tottenham on the 15th while Leicester meet Wolves a day earlier.COMMUNITY SHIELDLeicester City – Manchester City 1-0 (0-0)/Iheanacho 90′ pen/
