Sadio Mane nets a brace as Liverpool wins UEFA Super Cup on penalties

Sadio Mane nets a brace as Liverpool wins UEFA Super Cup on penalties

Mohamed Salah scored the decisive penalty as Liverpool were crowned UEFA Super Cup champions after defeating Chelsea on penalties.

The Reds got off to a quick start when Mohamed Salah went up the right wing, however, his shot was denied by Kepa in the 15th minute.

Just seven minutes later, Chelsea responded through Pedro. The Spaniard was given space behind Liverpool’s backline, but, his shot from a tight angle was deflected by Tipped by Adrian to hit the crossbar.

In the 36th minute, Chelsea’s new signing Cristian Pulisic received the ball in the midfield before releasing Olivier Giroud with a defence-splitting pass. The number 18 calmly drilled the ball into the back of Adrian’s net.

The second half started in an electrifying fashion, as Fabinho found Roberto Firmino with a perfectly weighted chipped through pass. The Brazilian squared the ball towards Sadio Mane, who was left with a simple tap in to level things up just three minutes after the restart.

Around the 75-minute mark, Kepa pulled off an excellent double save to deny Salah’s effort followed by Virgil Van Dijk’s attempt from the rebound.

Both teams failed to score the decisive goal before fulltime, sending the match to extra-time.

Mane doubled his tally just five minutes into extra-time, as he smashed Firmino’s clever back-pass past Kepa making it 2-1.

The Blues were awarded a penalty kick in the 10th minute of extra-time after Tammy Abraham was pulled down by Adrian inside the box. Jorginho’s sent the keeper to the wrong way form the spot leveling things up.

Both sides failed to score further goals in the extra time. This meant that penalty shootout will decide the UEFA Super Cup champions and it was Liverpool.

Adrian managed to save Abraham’s penalty, meanwhile, Liverpool scored all their five penalty kicks with Salah scoring the final one .

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