from "British Soccer Week"
A brilliant hat-trick from French ace Eric Cantona lit up Wembley in the highest scoring FA Charity Shield game for 24 years. Cantona's treble gave League Champions Leeds a dramatic 4-3 win over FA Cup holders Liverpool but the Merseysiders made them fight all the way.
Twice in the last 13 minutes Cantona struck with opportunist efforts that looked to have finished off gallant Liverpool. But in the dying seconds Mark Wright forced an own goal from Gordon Strachan to keep the 61,291 Wembley crowd enthralled to the end. It was the most exciting curtain-raiser to the season for years and the highest scoring since Manchester City beat West Brom 6-1 in 1968.
Liverpool began the game with their usual collection of players ruled out through injury: John Barnes, Jan Molby, Steve McManaman and Rob Jones but new 2.3 million pound midfielder Paul Stewart, their summer signing from Tottenham, fitted in well as Liverpool ran the game for long periods.
Leeds, who left 2 million pound David Rocastle on the bench, first breached Liverpool's fragile defence in the 25th minute. David Batty put Rod Wallace away on the left and he coolly cut the ball back for Cantona to strike his first goal from eight yards, with the help of a deflection from David Burrows.
Liverpool went straight back on to the attack, Ian Rush nodding wide and then Stewart seeing his low shot deflected a fraction wide. The goal they deserved eventually came in the 34th minute when Rosenthal was allowed to turn and Rush rifled home the equaliser with a header from the Israeli's accurate cross.
Liverpool were making most of the running but Leeds looked dangerous on the break and two minutes before half-time the Anfield rearguard was breached again, after they had conceded a free-kick on the edge of the box. Tony Dorigo lashed in a shot and the ball deflected off Rosenthal on the end of the wall to leave Bruce Grobbelaar helpless.
It was a cruel blow for Graeme Souness' men but they shrugged it off and dominated again at the start of the second half, Lukic having to make a good save from Mark Walters' low drive. The second equaliser came in the 65th minute. Walters' shot was blocked but Saunders picked up the rebound and lashed it home.
Grobbelaar kept out a Wallace shot with his legs while Saunders and Burrows both missed the target at the other end as Cantona struck again. This time he nodded down McAllister's long free-kick, Chris Fairclough chested the ball back to him and the Frenchman lashed a low shot past Grobbelaar from 15 yards. Ten minutes later Cantona grabbed his hat-trick with a simple header after Grobbelaar completely missed Wallace's cross.
In the final minute Leeds failed to clear a corner, allowing Wright to drive the ball into the net of the heels of substitute Strachan, but Leeds clung on for a famous win.
Cantona later handed the credit to his team-mates: "I'm very happy to score three goals but me, I'm not very important. It's more important for the whole team." But the French ace's striking partner Lee Chapman put Cantona's superb performance into perspective, saying: "He fully deserved to score three goals and he's going to have a great season."
"He took a while to adapt because English football is so different, but he can only get better and better." And, looking ahead to Leeds' bid to retain their championship, Chapman added: "It's going to be a great season. It's looking good but there's a long way to go."
Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson said: "I enjoyed the result and the game. It was just the sort of match the English game needs at the moment but it was not surprising with so much skill out there today. It would be nice if we see that level of skill in the Premier League in the new season. But there were some defenders out there today who won't bee too happy with their performances. Perhaps there will be a lesson in that for them and we might see defenders getting on top in the League."
Wilkinson, although reluctant to nominate a man of the match, praised Cantona's performance. He said: "He's scored three goals in the Charity Shield at Wembley. I believe nobody has done that before, so it's an historic performance. He's a better player now in my view than six months ago and I'm not just talking in terms of English football. He's got exceptional potential and his attitude in training since he came back from the European Championships has been just right. Perhaps he was a bit disillusioned by what happened in Sweden but he hasn't shown it with us."
Wilkinson predicted the match would "not mean a thing" as far as his team's opening Premier League game against Wimbledon next Saturday is concerned. "The main thing I'm pleased about is that we have no serious injuries and we have shown ourselves we are pretty fit. I think Graeme Souness would have a similar view."
Souness said: "I thought we played well and dominated the second half but we gave away some goals that I would hate us to do in the League. It was very un-Liverpool."
Copyright - British Soccer Week.