A late headed effort from Zlatan Ibrahimovic helped Manchester United to clinch the Community Shield title as they outplayed reigning EPL champions Leicester City 2-1.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has made an immediate impact at Manchester United after scoring the winning goal in the Community Shield encounter against Premier League champions Leicester City on Sunday night at Wembley.
Jesse Lingard opened the scoring for Man Utd with a sensational solo effort but a defensive blunder from Fellaini helped Leicester star Jamie Vardy to equalise.
GOAL: Leicester City 1-2 Manchester United (ZLATAN) pic.twitter.com/pdZEY73Kvx
— Zlatan Ibrahimovic (@ZIatanVines) August 7, 2016
The flying swede looked positive but lacked precision on the final ball in the first three quarters of the traditional curtain raiser to the Premier League. However, Zlatan delivered with seven minutes from time, from a sensational header at the bottom corner to beat Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and clinched the title for Manchester United.
In the absence of ace defender Chris Smalling, new signing Eric Bailly had a huge role to play. Bailly proved his mettle on many occasions, but was put to test inside 5 minutes of the game, when Jamie Vardy sped past him before Blind came to Man Utd’s rescue and forced the ball out for a corner.
Leicester City had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 20th minute when Vardy deceived Bailly to pick Shinji Okazaki, whose curling effort from just outside the area was deflected behind for a corner.
Okazaki positioned himself perfectly and jumped above Michael Carrick and Zlatan Ibrahimovic before launching a superb header which hit the crossbar.
What a run!
take a bow Lingard !1-0 pic.twitter.com/zOJxTBRdM5
— Goal Digger (@FCBGoalDigger) August 7, 2016
At the half hour mark both the teams looked to retain possession and slowed the tempo before Wayne Rooney picked Lingard in the midfield. The 23-year-old winger triggered a brilliant solo run to beat the the title winning defence as he deceived four Leicester players before gliding the ball past Kasper Schmeichel in the 32nd minute, to give Man Utd an early lead.
Ranieri made two changes at the interval as club record signing Ahmed Musa was introduced, and it was not long before the new boy was involved.
After going down by one goal at the first half, Ranieri brought in the club’s record signing Ahmed Musa after the restart. Musa immediately got involved in a number of half chances as Leicester started putting more pressure on the Man Utd defense.
Musa rushed in through the left and glided a ball forward which found Fellaini. The Belgian committed a defensive blunder as his attempted back-pass found Jamie Vardy, who rushed forward before rounding off De gea to slot the ball home. Leicester fans were in a frenzy as their star man Vardy scored the equaliser in the 52nd minute.
Another FA Cup final goalscorer Juan Mata replaced an injured Lingard at the one hour mark, as Leicester pushed more men forward, looking hungry for taking the lead.
Man Utd held on to their nerves and desperately looked for open spaces but Ibrahimovic’s weak effort on goal was kept out by Danny Drinkwater.
Musa had a golden opportunity to score the winner for Leicester City but he failed to make contact with Robert Huth’s pass into the danger area.
A penalty shoot-out was up on the cards but Zlatan jumped high above Wes Morgan to meet Vealencia’s cross before launching a sensational header at the bottom corner to beat Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the 83rd minute.
Juan Mata who was introduced at the second-half was taken off to bring in Henrikh Mkhitaryan which didn’t go down well with the Spaniard.
The Man United defence proved too strong for Leicester in the dying minutes of the game as Mourinho documented his name in Man Utd’s history books by clinching his first silverware for the club.