Chelsea suffer as Reds take silver

Liverpool FC showed that they continue to have the edge over Chelsea FC, in cup competitions at least, by beating the English champions 2-1 to win the FA Community Shield at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Jinx persists
The Anfield club had defeated the Londoners by the same scoreline in last season's FA Cup semi-finals, en route to lifting that trophy, and they picked up where they left off in May thanks to goals in each half from John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch. Andriy Shevchenko had brought parity to the contest by opening his account for Chelsea on the stroke of half-time.

Wonder goal
Riise, who had also scored in that semi-final, again proved Chelsea's nemesis with a wonder goal on nine minutes. The Norway full-back ran from his own penalty area before powering a shot from 25 minutes that goalkeeper Carlo Cudinici could not prevent from arrowing into the net. Shevchenko then demonstrated why Chelsea paid around €45m to bring him from AC Milan, latching on to Frank Lampard's perfect through-pass to side-foot the ball calmly past Liverpool's Pepe Reina.

Decisive header
The title-holders improved after the break but, against opponents who had also ousted them from the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, they succumbed to a sucker punch from Crouch. Substitute Craig Bellamy crossed for the England striker to head in from close range with eleven minutes remaining, and send the first silverware of the season to Merseyside.