Oliver Glasner says Community Shield win gives Palace ‘feeling you can’t buy’

By Rachel Steinberg, PA

Oliver Glasner believes Crystal Palace earned themselves a feeling “you can’t buy with any money in the world” after his team fought back to beat big-spending Liverpool on penalties in the Community Shield at Wembley.

Goalkeeper Dean Henderson saved spot-kicks from Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott, after Mohamed Salah had missed the Reds’ first, as the Eagles added more silverware to their collection, having secured their first major trophy by defeating Manchester City to lift the FA Cup in May.

And it was that victory, the Palace boss revealed, that he deliberately kept fresh in his players’ minds on their return to the national stadium, where normal time ended 2-2 thanks to Ismaila Sarr’s second-half equaliser before Northern Ireland international Justin Devenny converted the decisive penalty.

“I showed the players a video before we went to Wembley about the happiness of the fans after winning the FA Cup, and this, we call it the emotional reward,” Glasner said.

“Standing here in front of the fans, having these emotions, this feeling you can’t buy with any money in the world, so you have to deserve it. And the players deserved it after the FA Cup and the players deserved it today.

“Our fans, they are already supporting us from the beginning until the end, even today. When we were down, they were always pushing the team forward. It’s a great connection, and at the end, we were all rewarded, and this is what then stays forever.”

The contest opened with a touching tribute to former Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, who died in a car crash in Spain on July 3.

Liverpool have spent nearly £300million this transfer window – recouping almost £200m – while Palace have so far only splashed around two million pounds on Croatia defender Borna Sosa, and added goalkeeper Walter Benitez on a free transfer.

Four of Arne Slot’s summer signings were handed starts at Wembley, and made their impact felt early on as Florian Wirtz teed up fellow debutant Hugo Ekitike for a fourth-minute opener.

Jean-Philippe Mateta drew the sides level with a 17th-minute penalty before Liverpool restored their advantage four minutes later through another new addition, Jeremie Frimpong, who looped what looked like an intended cross over Henderson’s fingertips and in.

But Sarr, who scored twice in the FA Cup semi-final, finished from an excellent Adam Wharton pass in the 77th minute to draw the sides level and take the match to penalties.

Slot said there was not a “main issue” that led to the shootout defeat, but added: “If the other team misses two penalties and you still lose within five penalties, that, of course, doesn’t help.

“But in general, it was a game where twice we were one goal up, and in my opinion we controlled the game until the moment they (equalised). We still had one big chance for Mo Salah, but we could have lost it in the end.

“Until that moment, I think there was every reason for me to expect that we would win this game, but after the 2-2 we were maybe lucky that we could go to penalties.”