LONDON: Kelechi Ihea­nacho’s late penalty gave Leicester City a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield on Saturday, stealing the spotlight from Jack Grealish.

Iheanacho’s left-footed rocket from the spot beat goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the 88th minute in the English season-opener, and Leicester celebrated once again at Wembley Stadium, where they won the FA Cup final in May.

Grealish made his debut for City just two days after the Premier League champions broke the British transfer fee record by paying 100 million pounds ($139 million) to sign him from Aston Villa.

The midfielder came on in the 65th minute and looked for whistle when he went down on the edge of the Leicester box about 10 minutes later.

He didn’t get it, but Iheanacho did after being taken down by defender Nathan Ake. The Nigeria international made no mistake from the spot against his former team.

“I’ve been practising penalties. I missed one last season so I’ve been practising in pre-season. I had just one thing in my mind: just shoot at an angle and hit it hard, and that’s what I did,” he told ITV television.

Defeat in the annual curtain raiser to the English top-flight season will matter little to City if they can replicate last term’s superb form, which carried them to Premier League and League Cup glory.

City manager Pep Guardiola gave starts to teenagers Sam Edozie and Cole Palmer while established stars, including like Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden, remain out either injured or just returning from summer break.

“The performance was really really good, especially for this stage of the season and the way we played in the second half,” said the Spaniard. “In general given the short preparation time we had, all the loan players, all the academy players have been exceptional.”

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2021