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THE epic nature of the rivalry between Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City almost demanded a Champions League final meeting last May.When they last met in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley in April, both managers would have been fully expecting a last tango in Paris to round off another season of this fascinating duopoly.
Rival bosses Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have huge respect for each otherCredit: PA
Manchester City won the race for the summer’s hottest property, Erling HaalandCredit: Getty
New striker Darwin Nunez has been in brilliant pre-season form for LiverpoolCredit: Getty
Instead, owing to the wrecking-ball efforts of Real Madrid, they meet again today in the more low-key environment of a Community Shield at Leicester’s King Power Stadium.
But while the venue has been shifted because of the women’s Euros final at Wembley tomorrow, and the match will rightly be overshadowed by the progress of England’s Lionesses, Liverpool versus City is never a fixture to be sniffed at.
The frenetic tempo and outrageous quality of their two league meetings last season — both of which ended in 2-2 draws — were off the scale.
Klopp and Guardiola, the two longest-serving bosses in the Premier League, have elevated English club football to new levels over the past six seasons.
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PLAY DREAM TEAM NOW FOR FREE WITH £100k IN PRIZE MONEY
Even the Community Shield — a match we usually hype up as if it’s a major trophy, only to forget who even won the thing a week later — has greater pulling power because it is being contested by Liverpool and City.
Few people expect anything other than another two-horse race for the title (runners-up Liverpool finished 18 points clear of third-placed Chelsea last term).
Genuine hostilities will not resume until their league meeting at Anfield on October 15 but there will be much talk of psychological advantages and momentum-building today.
And there is extra intrigue following the summer arrivals of Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez.
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kit RELEASED, Gunners CONFIRM Okonkwo Crewe exit
Not merely because these two new strikers are expensive, high-profile imports, but because they are likely to bring a shift in playing styles for both teams.
It is unusual for such successful sides to undertake a significant reboot. But neither City nor Liverpool have regularly employed out-and-out centre-forwards over the past couple of seasons, so Haaland and Nunez will provide them with more obvious focal points.
Will specialist goalscorers improve them, as logic would suggest? Or could it make them more predictable to play against?
Klopp suggests his side have been struggling in pre-season to adjust to the strengths of Uruguayan Nunez, a £64million capture from Benfica.
It may also take time for Haaland to bed in at City or for Guardiola’s men, so fluid in attack, to get used to new attacking patterns of play.
This rivalry is helped by its longevity. Two managers in charge of two major clubs for as long as six years is rare in the modern game.
Kevin De Bruyne is now the last remaining member of the first-team squad Guardiola inherited from Manuel Pellegrini in 2016.
Plenty would argue Klopp is, pound-for-pound, the better manager as Guardiola has never proved himself at a club who weren’t financially dominant
And while Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Joe Gomez all predate Klopp at Anfield, these are two sides undeniably constructed in the image of their managers.
There is immense mutual respect between them. Guardiola admits that Liverpool’s relentless pursuit has driven his own team to greater heights.
The Reds boss is usually sanguine about the fact Guardiola has enjoyed bigger budgets both here and in Germany, where the Catalan managed Bayern Munich, while Klopp presided at Borussia Dortmund.
Plenty would argue Klopp is, pound-for-pound, the better manager, given that Guardiola has never proved himself at a club who weren’t financially dominant.
Yet Klopp’s shot at immortality — last season’s Quadruple — was wrecked by City’s late comeback against Aston Villa on the final day of the last Premier League season, before Real defeated his team in Paris.
Both men have won too much silverware to worry too much about the destination of the Community Shield. But will it be a great watch, all the same?
With these two sides contesting it, you’d be shocked if it wasn’t. More

THE most famous footballer in Premier League history wants to leave England’s most famous club.So, yes, as a celebrity story, Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to leave Manchester United is undeniably big.
Cristiano Ronaldo is determined to leave Manchester United this summerCredit: Getty
Ronaldo is keen to depart Old Trafford as he desires to play Champions League footballCredit: Getty
But in footballing terms, not so much.
Because any serious-minded elite club who wish to match Ronaldo’s ambition of winning the Champions League, will recognise a 37-year-old on vast wages who, while still scoring plenty of goals, has made teams collectively worse in recent seasons.
And any serious-minded elite footballer, with ambitions of winning the Champions League or Premier League any time soon, will recognise a club which hasn’t come close to winning either trophy in almost a decade.
A team which lost their last six away games, clocked up just 57 Premier League goals and 58 points, conceded more goals than Brentford, and ended up with a zero goal difference.
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Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-i1acvs:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}NO RON-DEZVOUS .css-8h3gc3{margin:0;padding:0;color:rgba(34,37,38,1);-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;font-family:The Sun;font-size:18px;line-height:1.333;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0%;font-stretch:normal;display:inline;}.css-8h3gc3:hover:not(:disabled){-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Ronaldo DELAYS Man Utd return & Ten Hag crisis talks due to ‘family reasons’
Somehow, United finished sixth — but the same points total the previous season would have left them 11th.
They are sinking into mid-table, in a league so wealthy that mid-table clubs can buy world-class players and pay them handsomely.
New manager Erik ten Hag must privately fear that things will get worse before they get better.
The imminent signing of Christian Eriksen is an intriguing one, and a heartwarming one after the 30-year-old Dane’s cardiac arrest at last summer’s Euros. It may even be a genuinely good one.

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transfer, Salah’s Chelsea deal EXCLUSIVE
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But how many emerging world-class players will be attracted to United?
By now, footballers — especially those from overseas — are entering their prime years with scarcely any recollection of United having ever been any good.
United’s hierarchy often confuse ‘famousness’ and vast social-media numbers, with them being a desirable destination for top-quality footballers.
And, increasingly, they will begin to realise the difference. Ten Hag, a realist, seems to understand this.
He is looking to mould a new United in his own image — made up predominantly of young players and imports from the Dutch League.
This is a long-term strategy, with no guarantee of success, and it will need the sort of patience which the sensible majority of Arsenal fans are offering Mikel Arteta.
So Ten Hag is unlikely to mourn Ronaldo’s departure.
Yet the timing of the Portuguese’s news smacked of selfishness from Ronaldo and shyness from Ten Hag.
Ronaldo has been linked with a shock switch to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea weigh up a moveCredit: AFP
It is more than two months since Old Trafford last staged a United match — and Ten Hag had made a major play of ‘getting to work early’ after his departure from Ajax.
So why didn’t Ten Hag initiate Ronaldo’s exit, rather than waiting for it to happen?
When he was interviewed for the job, we were told the Dutchman boldly delivered home truths to Old Trafford’s hapless executives.
And while Ten Haag wasn’t swayed by his countryman Louis van Gaal declaring United a ‘commercial club not a football club’, he must have recognised a large dollop of truth in that statement.
A ballsy incoming manager would have been more proactive on Ronaldo. And Ten Hag is not going to succeed at Old Trafford as a shrinking violet.
United and Ronaldo re-married in haste last autumn — and both repented at leisure during a turgid, tumbleweed, driftwood campaign.
Ronaldo was not a dressing-room troublemaker.
He remains an excellent pro with the highest standards — as his desire to win more trophies at 37 seems to prove.
Portugal international Ronaldo scored 24 goals in 38 games in all competitions last seasonCredit: PA
But when Ronaldo is at your club, everything becomes about Ronaldo — on and off the pitch.
That is not even meant as a criticism, it’s just a fact.
When you have a prolific goalscorer in your team, he will always be a focal point.
But when that prolific goalscorer doesn’t have the stamina or inclination to defend from the front, you have a problem in modern football.
As Ronaldo’s previous club, Juventus, already discovered.
And when you employ a Galactico with half a billion social-media followers, his every move will flood the internet.
There’s no point in an old-school hack like me pretending otherwise — and there’s certainly no point in United doing so.
Ronaldo didn’t cause United’s problems. His re-signing was symptomatic of those problems and it accentuated them.
Ronaldo failed to report back to Carrington for pre-season training on MondayCredit: Getty
So where will the five-time Ballon d’Or winner go next? Unless new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is especially daft, it will not be to one of Europe’s top ten clubs.
The smart money is on Napoli — who, unusually, manufacture their own shirts and so would benefit far more than most clubs from selling tens of millions worldwide.
Because Ronaldo is very, very famous and he is still very, very good at scoring goals.
He just can’t improve elite teams any more.
He couldn’t even improve United.
Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo has just one year left on his contract at the Theatre of DreamsCredit: EPA
ED SCRATCHER
ENGLAND’S rugby men have now lost four Tests in a row.
The last two – against Australia and the Barbarians – when their opponents were reduced to 14 men.
They’ve had losing records in their last two Six Nations campaigns, including back-to-back Calcutta Cup defeats to Scotland for the first time in the professional era.
And they failed to show up for the 2019 World Cup final, despite being firm favourites.
Eddie Jones, the highest-paid coach in world rugby on £750,000-a-year, is lucky that his sport does not enjoy a higher profile.
Eddie Jones’ England side have lost four Test matches in a rowCredit: AP
NICK A BRIT OF ALRIGHT
UNLESS you’re a tennis aficionado who watches the sport keenly outside of Wimbledon fortnight, there are only two things you really want to see at the All England Club – British victories and almighty tantrums.
And given that British victories are scarce in the second week, tantrums will have to do.
Middle Englanders, who make up the majority of Wimbledon crowds, are generally a reserved and polite bunch.
And whether they admit it or not, they enjoy nothing more than watching somebody being spectacularly rude.
Which is why the talented Aussie attention-seeker Nick Kyrgios was right to declare himself ‘one of the most important people in the sport’.
Rudeness, and arrogance too? Golly gosh, how frightfully exciting.
Britain’s Cameron Norrie is in action in the quarter-final on TuesdayCredit: Reuters
SHAMELESS
FOURTEEN of the world’s top 15 golfers are due to play at this week’s Scottish Open.
But Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter – who have made a combined total of 161 Major tournament appearances without a single win – are banned for taking shedloads of Saudi blood money to play in ‘rebel’ LIV Golf events.
The two Englishmen are among 16 golfers taking legal action against the DP World Golf Tour to fight their punishments – even though they had been warned of serious consequences if they got into bed with Saudi human-rights abusers.
Who could ever have imagined that golfers, and lawyers, might be so utterly shameless?
Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter will not be taking part in this week’s Scottish OpenCredit: Reuters
BY ‘ECC
BERNIE ECCLESTONE, the former goblin overlord of Formula One, claims he would ‘take a bullet’ for ‘first-class person’ Vladimir Putin.
But at least the billionaire weirdo is an old has-been who no longer holds any power in the sport.
World tennis chiefs at the ATP and WTA, who have fined the All England club and Britain’s LTA for banning Russian players from Wimbledon, are dangerous appeasers who will not be regarded kindly by history. More