Manchester City kicked off the Enzo Maresca era with a penalty shootout defeat to Inter in their first friendly of the summer in Hong Kong.
Divin Mubama opened the scoring for City in the first half thanks to an assist from the lively Antoine Semenyo, but Benjamin Pavard drew the Serie A side level from near the penalty spot six minutes later after some uncharacteristically casual defending from Maresca’s men.
Despite a few scares, City dominated much of the second half but failed to find a winner. That lack of cutting edge was evident in the shootout, with Rayan Ait Nouri, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez missing the first three penalties. From there, Claudio Echeverri’s successful Panenka and a Gianluigi Donnarumma save were not enough as Inter scored three of their four.
Maresca picked a strong starting line-up, with Josko Gvardiol, Phil Foden and Tottenham Hotspur target Savinho among the other notable starters, while players looking to nail down regular spots for next season, including Gonzalez and Ait Nouri, came on at the break.
Here are some of the biggest talking points from the Kai Tak Stadium.
A new man in the dugout
It is a bad idea to compare Maresca to Pep Guardiola all season, but given this was the first game since City’s long-serving manager left, noticing the differences is only natural. It will take a while to get used to looking down at the bench and not seeing Guardiola, who would be regularly gesticulating about something he did not like.
Maresca, as he has shown in training sessions, is hands-on with the players and somewhat demonstrative, but has been calmer than his predecessor. He was right on the edge of his technical area to see his team press well and force a throw-in, and gently applauded their work. When Inter played through them shortly afterwards, he turned away in frustration. All similar to Guardiola, but without that same manic energy.
Enzo Maresca has been a slightly milder presence on the touchline (Christopher Wong/Getty Images)
On the pitch, Maresca stuck with his usual build-up shape of three defenders with two midfielders in front of them — the ‘fourth’ defender in the first half was Rico Lewis, who moved up to join Mateo Kovacic as the two in midfield. Off the ball, City pressed Inter in a 4-2-4 shape, with Foden stepping up to join the front four, and there was mixed success; they won the ball in the Inter box a couple of times, but ended up getting played through quite a bit as the first half went on.
After a raft of changes for both teams at half-time and more throughout the second half, City bossed the remainder of the game but saw Ryan McAidoo hit the post after a nice dribble, and Victor Reis hit the bar with a header. A fine block from Khusanov with seven minutes left stopped Inter from nicking it on the break, which would have been a perverse pastiche of the Guardiola era if nothing else. The Uzbekistan international looked impressive, other than the penalty that struck the post.
Ups and downs for the big names
Foden, the longest-serving City player on the pitch by far, captained the side, playing into the hope for a fresh start this season, something Foden himself is targeting. He was quiet in the first half, only sporadically seeing the ball, but looked brighter after the break. He sprayed the ball out wide to Savinho from the middle of the pitch and sprinted flat out to get the return in the box, but Savinho’s dribble was thwarted before he had a chance to cross.
Phil Foden wearing the captain’s armband (Christopher Wong/Getty Images)
Savinho was also quiet early on and looked isolated on the right. When he did get possession before the break, his final ball was lacking, but he started the second half from the left with renewed energy and looked ever more dangerous as he tore at opponents. Aleksandar Stankovic was booked for a lunge on the Brazilian.
It was the opposite situation for Semenyo, who was the most eye-catching player on the pitch in the first half, but was less involved after moving into a central striker role after the break. He lit up the left wing with direct dribbles, including one dazzling run from deep that only produced a tame shot, and he set up Mubama’s goal with a dart to the byline and neat low cross. Semenyo and McAidoo have started the summer looking sharp in training and now on the pitch.
A makeshift midfield
There is an argument that with Rodri and Elliot Anderson still on their post-World Cup holidays, Kovacic is City’s best midfield option on this tour. He should not be considered as an option to anchor the midfield by himself, as was evident while Rodri was injured in the 2024-25 season, but he carries and protects the ball brilliantly, can spot a forward pass and gets his foot in. There is still some uncertainty around Tijjani Reijnders, who started in an attacking midfield role against Inter, and Gonzalez, who came on at half-time. There are a lot of eyes on City’s midfield, especially given Real Madrid’s interest in Rodri.
City are pushing to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi this summer, despite Lille’s president insisting that he wants to keep the 18-year-old. For all of the wonderfully talented players that the City academy are bringing through, there have been no suitable deep-lying midfielders on the conveyor belt — even Nico O’Reilly was better as an attacking midfielder in his academy days.
O’Reilly has been considered as somebody who can play in that ‘Rodri role’ next season, but City are surely hoping it does not come to that.