Maresca era begins with penalty shootout defeat to Inter

Divin Mubama got the opener for City early on before Benjamin Pavard levelled the scores six minutes later.

Despite the best efforts of Antoine Semenyo and Ryan McAidoo in particular, that’s how the score remained after 90 minutes.

Subscribe to CITY+ to see our Tour matches

We then went down 3-1 in the shootout, meaning Inter claimed the Asahi Super Dry Trophy.

Even with the result - which is always a secondary concern in pre-season - the new boss will no doubt be pleased with the way several of our younger players performed and the workout for his more senior stars.

We’ll now move on to Seoul where we’ll play a K-League All Stars side and Atletico Madrid next week.

The game in 250 words

After a huge welcome to Hong Kong and days of stormy weather, Enzo Maresca’s City reign got under way beneath the closed roof of the air-conditioned Kai Tak Stadium.

The two sides gave as good as they got until the 14th minute when Antoine Semenyo burst down the left wing and squared for Divin Mubama to tap home and set off a whirlwind of flag waving at the opposite end of the ground.

Semenyo was flying high by that point and he came close to our second when he burst into the box and picked his spot, only for Josep Martinez to stick out a left leg.

Inter’s response came out of the blue, with Benjamin Pavard passing home from the penalty spot after being picked out by fellow full-back Federico Dimarco.

A raft of changes followed at the break but City went straight back on the front foot, with Savinho carving out two chances that only determined Inter defending stopped.

As the substitutions kept coming the game became a little more disjointed.

That was until Ryan McAidoo’s weaving run from the inside right with 10 minutes left on the clock.

Squaring up his marker, he rolled the ball at the far post from 18 yards – only to see it bounce back out.

The teenager let rip again a few moments later and this time it whistled beyond the post.

Penalties were required to split the sides with City going down 3-1 after four efforts each.

Rayan Ait-Nouri, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico all missed their attempts, with Claudio Echeverri converting his.

Teams

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Lewis, Khusanov, Gvardiol (Alleyne 46), Mfuni (Ait-Nouri 46), Kovacic (Nico 46), Reijnders (Reis 46), Semenyo (Sangare 68), Foden (C) (Echeverri 68), Savinho (Braithwaite 78), Mubama (McAidoo 46)

Subs: Bettinelli, Wint, Chabot, Monga, Mukasa, Alleyne, F. Samba, Heskey, Henderson-Hall, Parker

INTER XI: Martinez (Provedel 61), Pavard (Bovio 68), Augusto (Marello 68), Bisseck (Maye 78), Dimarco, Stankovic (Bastoni 46), Diouf (Henrique 46), Mkhitaryan (Zielinski 46), Barella (Topalovic 46), Iddrissou (Mosconi 46), Esposito (Lavelli 67)

Subs: Di Gennaro, Farronato, Sucic, Bonny, Frattesi, Calhanoglu, Mosconi

Attendance: 42,826

Maresca reaction

The manager’s thoughts on the game will follow shortly...

Star man

Antoine Semenyo – The Ghana international burst in behind the Inter defence with City’s very first attack of the night and didn’t stop there.

Every time he got the ball in the first half he used it to great effect, driving at Benjamin Pavard and finding his way into the box.

Our opener was all down to his work, getting to the byline and rolling across for Divin Mubama to tap in and he could have had one of his own a few minutes later.

He moved into the central striker’s role for the second half, where his incredible goalscoring exploits of last season would suggest he may feel quite at home.

A great start to pre-season for a man whose 2025/26 was better than most.

A sea of sky blue

The vast majority of those in the Kai Tak Stadium were proudly sporting their City home shirts, with numbers of City fans dwarfing those in Inter colours.

After more than 22,000 fans at the open training session on Friday, a snaking queue outside our pop-up shop all week and 1,500 on a floating pitch in Victoria Harbour on Thursday, it’s been a great week for City fans based in Hong Kong.

This is just another reminder of City’s pulling power half the world away from home.

What’s next

City will swap Hong Kong for Seoul on Tuesday where we’ll play two more games to complete our 2026 Asia Tour.

First up will be a clash with K-League All Stars on Wednesday 5 August before we face Atletico Madrid on Sunday 9 August.

Both games will be live on CITY+ while tickets are still available if you can make it to the South Korean capital.

Watch our 2026 tour games on CITY+!

Subscribe to CITY+ now to see all three of City’s games during our 2026 pre-season tour of Asia.

After Saturday’s meeting with Inter, we’ll now head to Seoul to play a K League All-Stars side on Wednesday 5 August and then Atletico Madrid on Sunday 9 August. Both games begin at 12:00 (UK).

Each game will be available to watch on mancity.com and our official app for current CITY+ subscribers globally*.

Available for £34.99 annually or £9.99 per month, or unlock CITY+ as part of Premium Membership (£65/year), which brings together the best of City, in one membership.

*K-League All Stars v City: Globally available except South Korea 

City v Atletico Madrid: Globally available except South Korea, Spain 

Subscribe to CITY+ now