After 18 minutes of half-paced chugging, flashes of life standing out because they were unusual, a game broke out at the King Power Stadium.
Five or six tackles were made in the space of eight seconds, roughly split equally. It seemed to wake up both Liverpool and Manchester City.
They were both happy with a non-competitive warm-up, but you can only match your opponent. If they try their best to win, you try your best to win.
The Community Shield is the ideal match for a football manager because it contains no pitfalls or hidden traps.
Win and you can pretend – to the media, your players and yourself – that this is some Supercopa, another trophy for the cabinet and a marker laid down ahead of the league season.
Lose and it’s a meaningless friendly played solely to raise money for good causes that will have little impact upon what will follow.
If that can make for a subdued, fatuous atmosphere, this is the perfect fixture to allay those fears.
You may have spent the summer being wooed by Arsenal’s transfer dealings, Chelsea’s statement signings or Tottenham’s promises of improvement and investment.
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But make no mistake: Liverpool and Manchester City have proven themselves to be the best. They will continue their titanic battles in at least two – and perhaps four – competitions this season.
For Liverpool, more old heads than fresh starts. The presence of Adrian, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino in the team, with youth left on the bench to change the game, this was Liverpool’s oldest starting XI since 1953.
If Liverpool stuck with what they knew, Pep Guardiola has good reason to get as many minutes as he has from what may be his first-choice XI. This has been a clearout summer at the Etihad, with four first-team players leaving.
Guardiola must build an attack around Erling Haaland and bring the best out of Jack Grealish with Raheem Sterling sold to a rival. It will take some time. But rustiness, unfamiliarity or age are not enough to reduce the fizz of the contest.
Not when Mohamed Salah is intent on running in behind a left back and Joao Cancelo is determined to play in three different positions at once. Not when Thiago Alcantara is showing off his passing range like a musician going through their scales and Kevin De Bruyne is recalibrating the radar.
In the battle of the new strikers, Darwin Nunez’s joyful celebration – with customary yellow card – suggests that he knows just how crucial it is to become a fan favourite at Liverpool. He has plenty in his favour.
This rivalry also generates a buzz. Liverpool fans booed “Blue Moon” and jeered Mike Summerbee; Manchester City supporters did the same to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and Ian Rush.
One end boasted about being league champions; the other crowed about winning European Cups. The money may be eye-watering and the resources vast, but rivalries are fuelled by abhorrence.
These two would desperately want to beat each other at rock, paper, scissors. The goals still give you the rush, whatever the occasion.
Liverpool were far more fluent; perhaps no surprise given the lack of new faces in the team. Manchester City had the ingredients of a cohesive attack but no recipe.
In the second half, De Bruyne implored Haaland to make a more intelligent run when he had been dispossessed. He had two half chances, one saved and one miskicked, but the supply lines to him also regularly misfired.
There is also a continued problem whereby Grealish’s teammates don’t seem to know what he is going to do next with the ball.
That can work if it also surprises an opponent, but Guardiola is a coach who obsesses over control. He had that with Sterling, whose role was clearly defined. We are still to see it with Grealish. But problems will be ironed out. Relationships will blossom.
At the end of the season anyone who doesn’t support one of these two clubs will barely be able to recall the result of a match that is intended to whet the appetite, not make the mouth froth with anger or angst.
But one conclusion can certainly be drawn: however much any other team has improved or spent over the summer, these are your two most serious title contenders.
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