Man United 1 Chelsea 1 (United win 3-0 on penalties): Edwin van der Sar was the shoot-out hero as Manchester United clinched a Community Shield triumph over Chelsea at Wembley.
Marginally better than the drab FA Cup final in May, England's top two remained level at full-time after Florent Malouda had levelled Ryan Giggs' first-half opener.
But then came the real drama as Van der Sar pulled off three successive saves to deny David Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick scored for United, giving Wayne Rooney the chance to step up and win the trophy and he maintained United's 100 per cent record.
The victory will probably mean little in the nine-month slog that lies ahead but at least the Premier League champions have another trophy to sit alongside the big one, and gained some measure of revenge for their defeat three months ago.
In a sense, the early exchanges were more about who was not playing that who was.
John Terry, reportedly out for a month, Andriy Shevchenko and Didier Drogba were absent from the blue corner, while Owen Hargreaves, Anderson and Gary Neville were among those missing from the red.
In the absence of so many star names, Wright-Phillips shone for a while, beating both Mikael Silvestre and Patrice Evra during one mazy right-wing raid.
With David Beckham almost certain to miss England's August 22nd friendly against Germany, Wright-Phillips has a big incentive to start the campaign well. But it was his flank partner Maluoda who had the most telling impact.
It was the Frenchman's free-kick that Michael Essien got a head to as United's goal was threatened for the first time. Mikel Jon Obi flung himself forward at the far post but was unable to prevent the ball floating wide.
Malouda also had a fierce shot saved by Van der Sar before he did manage to find the net a minute before half-time, showing impressive speed and strength to first beat Rio Ferdinand, then resist the defender's illegal attempts to hold him back.
By that point, Giggs had already put United in front, marking his 10th Community Shield appearance in style. Wright-Phillips failed to follow Patrice Evra's off-the-ball run after the Frenchman had laid off a short pass to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Evra collected Ronaldo's through ball, raced to the by-line, then cut a superb pass back which invited Giggs' clinical finish; amazingly his first goal at Wembley since his days as an England Schoolboy.
Malouda's leveller put a different slant on the respective half-time team-talks of Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho
This time though, there was a happy ending for the Scot, with Van der Sar and Rooney the United matchwinners. PA
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