In an entertaining encounter at Wembley, the Red Devils struck first after 82 minutes, with Alejandro Garnacho slotting into the bottom corner.
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Pep Guardiola‘s men fought back admirably and levelled in the 89th minute through Bernardo Silva’s powerful header.
In the resulting spot-kicks, City emerged 7-6 victors with Ederson saving from Jadon Sancho and then scoring his penalty to take the shoot-out to sudden death, where Jonny Evans missed and Akanji blasted in the winner.
The Swiss international was full of praise for our shot-stopper following the victory.
“He’s maybe the best penalty taker in our team, obviously Erling as well,” declared Akanji. “I haven’t seen him miss for us. I know when he takes a penalty, it’s a goal. He saved us today with one good save so I’m really happy for him.
“It wasn’t easy. I think we played well. United got a bit better before they made it 1-0. We tried to stay in the game and it wasn’t easy.
“Then a great action from Oscar on the side with the good cross and Bernardo with a great header in the middle, and in the end, penalties luck, it’s always a bad feeling for the players to miss, I know how it is, but it has to be someone.
“It’s a great start to the season. I hadn’t won the Community Shield yet so I’m really happy that I got this trophy. We’re looking forward to hopefully winning the next one soon.”
Akanji had missed his last penalty earlier this summer, in Switzerland’s Euro 2024 quarter-final loss to England.
However, the defender revealed he had already picked his spot earlier this week in preparation for potential penalties.
“Obviously when you miss your last penalty then you don’t go with so much confidence in the next one, but yeah, I had a good feeling,” he said. “I trained yesterday and in training and I told Eddie I will shoot it straight down the middle, so yeah I did it and it went in.
“Last time we lost here in the FA Cup final and also the Community Shield, so I’m happy we won it today.”
