A Draw With Teeth
There was no gentle introduction for Enzo Maresca when the Champions League league phase draw was made. City will face Paris Saint-Germain at home, travel to Barcelona, host Sporting CP, and go to Porto. Napoli arrive at the Etihad, as do AEK Athens, while trips to RB Leipzig and RC Lens round out the eight fixtures.
It is a set of opponents with pedigree and awkward edges. PSG and Barcelona immediately stand out, but Porto away and Leipzig away are the kind of ties that decide seedings. Nobody in the City camp will be looking past Sporting or Lens either.
Maresca's Own History Lesson
The name on everyone's lips, though, is Maresca. The Italian was Pep Guardiola's assistant during that 2022/23 campaign, when City lifted the European Cup for the first time as part of a continental treble. Now he sits in the main seat, charged with doing it all over again.
Enzo Maresca will be looking to bring the UEFA Champions League title to the Etihad Stadium for only the second time in the club's history.
He takes on the top job after Guardiola's exit at the end of last season. There is symmetry in that. The man who helped plot the club's greatest European night now has to engineer a second one on his own terms.
The draw offers him a chance to measure himself against the very best quickly. Barcelona away, PSG at home — these are not fixtures for easing in gently. But then Maresca never struck anyone as someone who wanted the easy road.