ARSENAL CLAIM COMMUNITY SHIELD
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang clinched the Community Shield for Arsenal with his penalty securing a 5-4 shootout victory over Liverpool on Saturday in the curtain-raiser to a season that is beginning late and without fans due to the pandemic.
The game was settled on penalties at Wembley Stadium after Takumi Minamino’s first goal for Liverpool in the 73rd minute canceled out Aubameyang’s early opener.
The Arsenal captain latched onto Bukayo Saka’s diagonal pass before curling into the net and paying tribute in the goal celebration to actor Chadwick Boseman, who died the previous day of cancer at the age of 43.
Novak Djokovic tied Rafael Nadal’s record by winning his 35th title at a Masters 1000 tournament, overcoming a sluggish start to beat Milos Raonic 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Western & Southern Open final Saturday and remain unbeaten this season.
Getting tuned up ahead of the U.S. Open, which starts Monday, the No. 1-ranked Djokovic improved to 23-0 in 2020 and 11-0 head-to-head against Raonic, the 2016 Wimbledon runner-up.
Earlier Saturday, Victoria Azarenka won her first tour title since 2016 when Naomi Osaka pulled out of the women’s final because of a left hamstring injury.
Delayed but alive again and out on French roads, the strangest Tour de France ever set off Saturday in a bubble of anti-COVID protocols to try to keep the 176riders virusfree for three weeks of racing through the country’s worsening epidemic.
Only after riders peeled off their face masks and raced off from the start in the Mediterranean city of Nice, serenaded by a uniformed band playing “La Marseillaise,” did the Tour begin to look like its old, pre-COVID self, immediately delivering thrills and spills as storms made the roads as slippy as ice.
But with fans kept firmly at arm’s length, told by the government that it was best to stay home and watch the racing on television, the Tour lost much of its festive atmosphere. There was very little of the usual up-close communing between athletes and their adoring public that made the venerable 117-year-old rolling roadshow so unique among sports events in more carefree times. Powering past thin crowds on the finishing straight in Nice that would usually have been crammed with spectators rows deep, Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff won the first stage with a fearsome final sprint. He celebrated by giving a COVIDsensible fist-bump to a teammate.