First test, familiar ending
Enzo Maresca's first game in the City dugout ended in a penalty shootout defeat to Inter Milan at the Hong Kong Stadium on Saturday. The result itself carries little weight in July, but the performance arc — a difficult opening half followed by a brighter second — gave the new manager something to work with.
City's touring party is missing its World Cup participants from England, Norway, Spain and France, all on extended rest. That left a youthful, patched-up side to face a seasoned Inter outfit, and it showed early on.
We struggled a bit in the first-half and we know the reason why, but we were much better in the second-half.
Maresca, 46, was measured in his assessment. He pointed to the second-half improvement as encouraging, and made a point of praising the entire squad.
I was impressed with all of them and I'm happy with the performance.
The manager's message was simple: this is a starting point, not a finish line.
We will get better and better.
Semenyo's earlier observations about Maresca's methods — describing the sessions as very detailed and quite similar to Pep — seemed to fit the pattern of a side that grew into the game as it went along. The half-by-half feedback loop is evidently already in place.
There is plenty of work ahead, with fixtures against a K-League All Stars XI and Atletico Madrid still to come on the Asia tour. The shootout defeat will not linger long; the signs of progress might.