The result may not have gone Manchester City’s way in the Community Shield but Julian Alvarez has his first goal for his new side.
Alvarez was introduced in the 58th minute of the match with his side trailing 1-0 due to a goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold. Just 12 minutes later the Argentine had the ball in the back of the net as he stabbed home from close range.
There was a long wait for the goal to be confirmed by VAR after the linesman had initially raised his flag for offside on Phil Foden in the build-up.
Unfortunately for City, it did not spark their side to go on and win as a Mohammed Salah penalty and a late header by Darwin Nunez won the game for Liverpool. There will be bigger prizes at stake for both these teams later on in the season.
Much of the talk before the game was on Erling Haaland and Nunez. Haaland however missed two great opportunities to score in the game when Alvarez took his chance.
It only took Julian Alvarez 12 minutes to score his first Manchester City goal 🙌 pic.twitter.com/4OqACfvlOF
— GOAL (@goal) July 30, 2022
Julian Alvarez reacts to debut goal
Speaking to City TV after the game Alvarez said:
"“Obviously, I’m very happy for scoring my first goal with City, but that stays aside as we wanted to win the trophy,”“It’s tough, obviously we didn’t want to start this way. We need to keep working. It’s going to be a good season to fight for all the trophies and we need to carry on working this way.“It was a good test to start the season, we played well and played at a good level but we need to keep working to get the results.”"
Manchester City has had some great Argentine strikers over the years with the likes of Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez so their newest recruit from the country will always be compared to these star players.
However, if Alvarez can keep scoring like he did yesterday then it will not be long until he is held in the same regard as his fellow countrymen in Manchester before him.
The match against Liverpool has become a big rivalry in recent years with the two sides battling it out for the Premier League in the last few seasons.
Alvarez knows what it is like to score in big derbies, having scored in the Superclasico for River Plate against Boca Juniors, and having already scored against Liverpool will endear him to his new fans.
Where Pep Guardiola fielded Julian Alvarez
Julian Alvarez played off the right and through the centre against the Reds. He is predominately a centre-forward but can play off either flank so he does provide options for Pep Guardiola.
Yesterday he also showed a poacher’s instinct in the box. His manager must find a way to get the best out of him and Haaland.
There was talk of Alvarez going out on loan again but after his performance yesterday he will have hopefully put any links of a move away to bed.
It will be a long season and Manchester City competing with Jurgen Klopp’s side again for the title will be interesting. Nunez is 1-0 up in his new rivalry with Haaland but Alvarez has shown that he too can be mentioned alongside these two strikers.