We look ahead to Sunday’s Community Shield at Wembley Stadium with our Crystal Palace vs Liverpool prediction and preview. Who will lift the first silverware of the 2025-26 season?
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool: The Key Insights
Liverpool are favourites to win inside 90 minutes with the Opta supercomputer, doing so in 54.9% of simulations.
This will be Crystal Palace’s first appearance in the Community Shield after lifting the FA Cup for the first time in May.
The FA Cup holder has won seven of the last nine Community Shield games when it has been contested between the winners of the FA Cup and the Premier League.
It’s time for the proverbial curtain-raiser to the 2025-26 season as Crystal Palace face Liverpool in the FA Community Shield on Sunday.
Whether you think it’s a fully competitive game or a glorified friendly largely depends on if your team wins or loses, but you would think both teams will be keen to claim some early silverware to set the tone for what they hope will be a successful campaign ahead.
Liverpool come into the game as Premier League champions after easing to a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title in 2024-25, while Crystal Palace sensationally won their first ever major piece of silverware by beating Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final in May.
The Reds are making their fourth appearance in the Community Shield in the last seven years, as many as in the previous 28 years. They were beaten on penalties in both 2019 (vs Man City) and 2020 (vs Arsenal) but were able to win it in 2022 when they defeated City 3-1 at the King Power Stadium.
Crystal Palace will be making their debut appearance in the Community Shield. It doesn’t bode well, though, that none of the last four teams to play in the match for the first time have won the trophy, and even more ominously, two lost to Liverpool (Southampton in 1976 and Wimbledon in 1988).
That victory over Wimbledon in 1988 was the only time Liverpool have outright won the Community Shield in the last six occasions when they have come into the game as league champions.
On the other hand, recent FA Cup holders have had an excellent record in the game. On the occasions when it has been contested between the league winners and the FA Cup winners, the latter have won seven of the last nine Community Shield games. Last season, though, it was league champions Man City who beat cup victors Manchester United on penalties.
This will be the first Community Shield match since 1989 where the two competing teams also faced each other in the final league game of the previous season. Last time, Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 to get a modicum of revenge after the Gunners pipped them to the title with a dramatic 2-0 win at Anfield on the final day of the 1988-89 campaign.
Liverpool were defeated at Wembley in March by Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final, and will be looking to make amends for that. They have never lost at the national stadium twice in the same calendar year before.
Palace have a decent record at Wembley, having won four of their six matches since it was reopened in 2007 and in games where it was a neutral venue, only losing against Manchester United (2016 FA Cup final) and Chelsea (2022 FA Cup semi-final).
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Team News
Oliver Glasner’s side come into the game having only made two additions in the summer transfer window, with left-back Borna Sosa arriving from Ajax while former PSV goalkeeper Walter Benítez was also brought in from the Eredivisie.
Crucially, they have so far kept their star players, including Eberechi Eze despite reported interest from Arsenal. Eze scored the winner in the FA Cup final in May and has been involved in 12 goals in his last 13 games for Palace in all competitions (nine goals, three assists).
Liverpool have made several signings as they look to build on last season’s success. Former Bayer Leverkusen duo Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz are likely to start, while Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitiké could also line up from the beginning.
Mohamed Salah was electric for Liverpool last season, registering 57 goal involvements in 52 games in all competitions. However, since scoring against Tottenham Hotspur in his first appearance at Wembley in October 2017, the Egyptian hasn’t registered a single goal involvement in any of his last seven games at the stadium.
Ryan Gravenberch was sent off in the league meeting between these two teams in May, but his suspension only counts for Premier League games, so the Dutch midfielder will be free to play on Sunday.
Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez are expected to miss the game through injury, though Alisson is back and available after having to leave Liverpool’s tour of Asia to go home to Brazil for a family emergency.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Head-to-Head
This will be the first ever meeting between these two teams at Wembley Stadium. Palace have only won one of their last 16 meetings with Liverpool in all competitions (D3 L12), a 1-0 win at Anfield in the Premier League in April 2024.
Last season’s meetings saw Liverpool win 1-0 at Selhurst Park, before a 1-1 draw on the final day at Anfield prior to the Reds being presented with the Premier League trophy.
Liverpool v Crystal Palace stats 2024-25
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Prediction
Liverpool are the favourites to lift the Community Shield according to the Opta supercomputer. Slot’s side win inside 90 minutes in 54.9% of its 10,000 simulations.
Crystal Palace win in 90 minutes in 22.5% of sims, while the game goes to penalties in the remaining 22.7%.
Community Shield 2025-26 Opta Match Prediction
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool Predicted Lineups
Crystal Palace: Dean Henderson, Chris Richards, Maxence Lacroix, Marc Guéhi, Daniel Muñoz, Tyrick Mitchell, Adam Wharton, Daichi Kamada, Ismaïla Sarr, Eberechi Eze, Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Head Coach: Oliver Glasner
Liverpool: Alisson, Jeremie Frimpong, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitiké.
Head Coach: Arne Slot
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off in London this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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