After leading Manchester City to a 2-0 away victory over Porto in the first leg of the Champions League group stage, head coach Enzo Maresca gave an interview to Sky Sport Italia.

Enzo, this is your first Champions League match as head coach of Manchester City. It was indeed a complex, difficult, and intense battle, but we also know that the Champions League is a brutal and competitive stage. After such an intense confrontation, are you particularly pleased with the fearless spirit and determined fighting shown by your players on the pitch?

Absolutely, I'm very satisfied with it. Everyone knows that the place we challenged today is a very difficult home ground that intimidates all opponents. If I remember correctly, in their last 15 or 16 European matches, they've only lost once at home. They are a top team with excellent overall play, tactical quality, and great team coordination.

In today's match, we made our tactical intentions clear from the start. We pressed high in their half, trying to disrupt their buildup play through intense pressure, and we minimized their time and space on the ball. Overall, we played a very quality match and executed our away game tactically very well.

You've previously spoken publicly and in pre-match interviews about the atmosphere in the team's dressing room. In fact, even now as we conduct this post-match interview, we can still clearly hear the loud celebratory music coming from the dressing room. What kind of working atmosphere and team interaction have you created? From an outside perspective, this almost looks like a completely rebuilt new team. Yet remarkably, everyone seems to get along very well and has great understanding both on and off the pitch. This chemistry even gives the impression that these players have fought alongside each other with wordless understanding for years. What's the secret behind this?

Yes, you're absolutely right. We did welcome many new players during this transfer window, and as everyone saw on the pitch today, by the end of the match we even had four or five new faces playing together simultaneously. In this early phase of building and integration, our most crucial work as a team is to diligently explore and identify which aspects and details still need improvement and optimization.

To be honest, we still have many—even comprehensive areas—that need improvement. For this, we must ensure we give 100% effort in every training session. I believe this is our most important objective at this stage.

As you know, major English clubs are now investing heavily in the transfer market, which has caused severe inflation in the market, making it difficult to analyze using conventional logic. After Manchester City's massive financial investment, especially in recent days before the transfer window closed, the team has welcomed several key players with significant status and very high market values and salaries. After completing these ambitious large-scale purchases, what specific objectives have you set internally for this season?

Yes, that's absolutely true. In fact, during yesterday's pre-match press conference, media colleagues asked me almost the same question. After that, our club's senior management also kindly reminded me and wanted me to reiterate one important point: although we have indeed invested significant money to buy players, at the same time we have also realized significant financial gains through selling players and streamlining the squad. If you objectively calculate our combined purchase and sale accounts, you'll find that our actual net spending is very small, well within a reasonable and controllable range.

However, setting aside transfer funds, market operations, and balance sheet issues, purely from the perspective of competitive objectives, it's very difficult and unrealistic for me to be too ambitious in predicting what league position we'll occupy in February, March, or even the crucial April period next season. By comparison, focusing all our energy and attention on the present moment, thinking seriously about and preparing for our next match, seems far more practical and achievable. Therefore, our current strategy is to honestly take every match one by one, progressing steadily.

One final question: let's talk about superstar Erling Haaland, whom the English often describe as the "cherry on the cake". In football, regardless of how coaching staff or tactical systems change, he always seems to maintain his remarkable goalscoring efficiency. You even joked yesterday that Haaland now seems to show greater responsibility both in life and on the pitch, perhaps because in addition to performing on the green pitch, he's also leveling up in his personal life by becoming a father and learning to change diapers. How does it feel to have such a productive and pure striker on your tactical board and in your team? After all, he can always deliver the killer blow and help the team secure victory with methods you couldn't even imagine when the match is tight and the situation is difficult.

Yes, that's absolutely true. And most remarkably, he's always in the most advantageous attacking position in front of goal, always positioned there. Just like in our recent Premier League win last Sunday, he actually had two or three very good chances in the first half that he couldn't convert into goals. But even after missing those opportunities, he remained focused and active in the most threatening penalty area.

In the first half today, I think he also had two or three opportunities where the ball came to his feet. Although the ball didn't find the net due to various defensive constraints at those moments, he still made strong use of those chances through determined effort in the second half. For us, the most important prerequisite is that he's always there, ready for the killer blow. As long as we continue creating attacking chances and shooting opportunities for him on the pitch, he'll put the ball in the opponent's net, which is almost an inevitable result.

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