Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca was encouraged by the spirit of his team and what Luis Enrique told him afterwards
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 14: Enzo Maresca, Manager of Manchester City and Luis Enrique, head coach of Paris Saint-Germain on the side line after the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD2 match between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain at City of Manchester Stadium on October 14, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 14: Enzo Maresca, Manager of Manchester City and Luis Enrique, head coach of Paris Saint-Germain on the side line after the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD2 match between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain at City of Manchester Stadium on October 14, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
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Enzo Maresca and Luis Enrique
Enzo Maresca believes that Manchester City are 'close' to the level of Paris Saint-Germain after going toe-to-toe with the Champions League winners for 45 minutes. The Blues were 3-0 down after the first half at the Etihad but rallied and were unfortunate in the end to lose by two goals.
PSG boss Luis Enrique, who had backed City's past achievements ahead of the game despite their guilty verdict in the 115 case, told Maresca at the end that his side had been lucky to leave with the result that they did. While there will be concerns at the way City lost their way in the first half after conceding the first goal, the manager was upbeat about the way his team came back.
"I really like to play against PSG, to be honest because they are brave, I know they way they want to press, they don't care, they go man to man on the pitch, they are quite dynamic," said Maresca. "I like to play against them and I think we are there, to be honest.
"My feeling is we are there, we are close. The reason why we struggle first half is we concede two goals and you know you are already difficult against them and then think 'Oh my god we are 2-0 down so it is even more difficult.' Luis at the end told me they had been quite lucky during the 95 minutes but we lost, we can move on."
Enrique then backed up what he had told Maresca in private when he spoke to media after the game. The PSG coach feels his team have not had the run of decisions in Ligue 1 this season yet made up for that at the Etihad.
"It was a really exciting game and what we thought about the game yesterday actually ended up happening," he said. "When you see a game at this level, two teams who are really trying to play football, pressing as high as possible, I think that was the game we thought it was going to be.
"Exciting, incredible, played at a high tempo. That's exactly what happened. We were able to overcome their pressing in the first half and deserved to be 3-0 up at half-time but then I don't like it when we get two halves of football that are so different. I know that the opponents in the second half took a lot of risk and really went for it and created a huge amount of problems for us.
"The team that lost today perhaps were a bit unlucky and I spoke to [assistant] Raphael Pol at half-time and said all the luck that we didn't have in the first games of the French league, we got all of it today. It balanced out a bit in the second half today when the luck was on our side. I think the luck was on our side this evening."
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