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Paul McNamara

Whatever he does in the rest of his career, Divin Mubama can always say he scored the first goal of Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City reign, the 21-year-old striker netting in the 14th minute against Inter Milan, before the English club lost on penalties following a 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday.
With all respect to Mubama, who was on loan at Stoke City last season, not many of the 42,826 crowd for this first match of the Hong Kong Football Festival were here to deliberate over his future direction.
No, this was the first chance to gain some insight into how Maresca will manage the devilish task of succeeding Pep Guardiola.
The former Chelsea boss’s powers of motivation were evident as he coaxed a more assured and assertive second-half performance from his players, following an untidy opening 45 minutes.

“Inter started training 10 days before us and they were probably more ready; in the second half we were better,” Maresca said.
“It was mainly positive … I was happy with the performance but there are things we could do better.”
The Italian, dressed in club-issue black tracksuit bottoms and polo-shirt, paired with white trainers, was a constant presence on the touchline, often disobediently standing outside his large technical area.
The one time he disappeared from view was immediately after his team sloppily aided Benjamin Pavard’s 20th-minute equaliser, Maresca sinking back into his dugout.
It was little wonder he was aghast. Manchester City repeatedly gifted space to Inter wingers Andy Diouf and Federico Dimarco, and it was the latter who collected possession unmarked in the box.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, skittish all night, intercepted the cross but Josko Gvardiol inexplicably turned the ball straight back to Dimarco.
Gvardiol failed to deal with the low delivery, which allowed Pavard, the scorer of one of the great World Cup goals for France against Argentina eight years ago, to convert a scruffy strike.
The defending raised an audible chuckle from the stands when the goal was replayed on the big screens.
“We conceded switches of play [in the first half] … because we were late in the pressing,” Maresca said. “We tried to press in a different way in the second half and we were much better.”
Donnarumma saved awkwardly from Aleksandar Stankovic, and was soon pawing at thin air following a Nicolo Barella cross. Shortly after half-time, the Italian had to save after gifting possession to Davide Frattesi.
Food for thought for Maresca, who is reportedly on the verge of selling No 2 keeper James Trafford to Leeds United.
William Fang, appointed “atmosphere leader” of City’s Shanghai supporters group, which travelled with around 130 members, said pre-match that he would be warming up for his chant-leading duties by sucking on throat lozenges.
Sitting in his HK$2,999 (US$382) fifth-row seat, Fang, who said fellow fans had travelled from Beijing, Zhangye, Shenzhen and Inner Mongolia, would have been called into action when Mubama opened the scoring.
It was a lovely goal, created by Antoine Semenyo, who had already tested Josep Martinez, after the goalkeeper sacrificed common sense on the altar of playing from the back and landed Barella in a tight spot by the touchline, allowing Tijani Reijnders to tee up the winger.
For the breakthrough, Semenyo left Diouf for dust and Mubama arrived to nudge home the low delivery.
A halfway-line attempt from Semenyo that narrowly missed the target indicated that Maresca will give creative licence to his players, the winger then tormenting Pavard before shooting too close to Martinez.
Planning to spend around HK$1,000 on souvenirs before watching his City favourites for the first time, supporter Jason Cho, along with his wife, had got to Kai Tak hours before kick-off.

“This is a great opportunity,” he said, having spent between HK$3,000 and HK$4,000 on two tickets.
Cho would have felt he was getting bang for his buck when City began to dominate, hogging possession and creating a stream of opportunities.
Nico Gonzalez struck wide from distance, Victor Reis cracked the bar, and Rico Lewis, now switched to central midfield after performing as an inverted fullback, shot weakly when well positioned.
On the eve of the match, Ryan McAidoo had vowed to “show the world what I can do”, and the electric 18-year-old attacker four times came close to netting; the pick of his efforts hit the base of a post after he wove forwards at pace.
After one off-target attempt, he spread his arms, seemingly asking, ‘what more can I do?’. More of the same would be the answer. Maresca has a very good young player on his hands.
Not so many good penalty takers, mind, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Abduokir Khusanov and Gonzalez all finding ways to fail from the spot. Claudio Echeverry’s Panenka effort finally beat substitute keeper Ivan Provdel, but Matteo Lavelli stepped up to win it, after Piotr Zielinski and Mosconi had already converted, and Donnarumma had excellently saved from Frattesi.
It will be a while before we know whether Maresca is more David Moyes, who cut a haunted figure when he left Manchester United 10 months after replacing Sir Alex Ferguson, or Arne Slot, who succeeded Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and duly won the Premier League.
As Maresca said 24 hours before the game, he will be judged every day as we wait to find out whether Manchester City have appointed a suitable heir to Guardiola.


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Inter Milan players celebrate after beating Manchester City on penalties at Kai Tak Stadium. Photo: Elson Li

Young winger Ryan McAidoo is sent flying by Carlos Augusto. Photo: Reuters

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Rayan Ait-Nouri fends off Antoine Semenyo during Manchester City’s training session at Kai Tak Stadium. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Enzo Maresca speaks to the press ahead of his first game in charge of Manchester City. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Manchester City fans capture images of their heroes training at Kai Tak Stadium. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Manchester City’s Croatian World Cup defender Josko Gvardiol will play under Italian manager Enzo Maresca for the first time at Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday. Photo: dpa

Josko Gvardiol (4) scores a goal against Portugal that was later disallowed by VAR at the World Cup. Photo: AP

Erling Haaland (left), shaking hands with Josko Gvardiol, is one of the few players remaining from Manchester City’s 2023 treble-winning side. Photo: AP

Sport

Football

English Premier League club beaten following 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium as new boss begins reign


English Premier League club beaten following 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium as new boss begins reign.


Kai Tak Sports Park

Pep Guardiola

Manchester City pay penalty against Inter Milan in Hong Kong, but Maresca happy with start

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}English Premier League club beaten following 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium as new boss begins reign

English Premier League club beaten following 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium as new boss begins reign