According to Manchester Evening News, after Manchester City's away victory at Porto, manager Enzo Maresca now has time to breathe and an opportunity to prove the team's strength in their upcoming home match against Paris Saint-Germain.

At the Estádio do Dragão, some were ready to criticize Enzo Maresca and Manchester City. The stadium is notoriously difficult for visiting teams to dominate, and the Sky Blues were attempting to prove they could perform strongly even without a tactical genius like Pep Guardiola.

Under the new Champions League format, Maresca faced an uphill challenge. Teams must accumulate 16 points to guarantee a top-eight finish from the opening match. Manchester City's fixture list is statistically one of the most challenging among the 36 participants. Their first opponent was Porto, a particularly daunting challenge—Porto remain unbeaten at home for nine consecutive months and have lost only one of their last 14 European home matches.

If they failed to secure three points, Manchester City would face mounting pressure before their second match, with defending champions Paris Saint-Germain visiting the Etihad Stadium. While Manchester City typically believe they can challenge any opponent at home, finding a stronger rival than Luis Enrique's PSG—who have won back-to-back Champions League titles—would be difficult.

Should Manchester City draw in the first round, or worse, lose, the match against Paris would become crucial. In the new Champions League group phase, 16 points are needed to reach the top eight, meaning teams can afford to lose a maximum of eight points from eight matches to avoid the playoff round.

If Manchester City drops at least four points from their first two matches, Maresca's plan to usher in a new era after Pep Guardiola would be in trouble. He would face immediate enormous pressure, requiring near-perfect results in the remaining matches, including away fixtures against Leipzig and Barcelona.

Manchester City can still afford to lose three points to PSG, but their impressive away victory over Porto has allowed new manager Maresca to turn the tide. He has bought himself breathing room, and now Manchester City have the opportunity to demonstrate strength at home against one of Europe's strongest teams.

Guardiola's approach to the new Champions League format was to focus on winning all four home matches first, then maximize points from away fixtures. This is Manchester City's first attempt at this strategy, and the team faced a major crisis before ultimately achieving their goal. While the second attempt has succeeded, things could have looked entirely different without the 0-2 home defeat to Leverkusen.

When Maresca surveys the first two matches, he might accept four points immediately. But now that they have collected most of these points, Manchester City can set higher targets. Two of the three matches following Paris are home games, with weaker opponents for Manchester City: AEK Athens and Napoli, both of whom have poor away records in the Champions League.

In December, Manchester City will travel to Barcelona, followed by an away match at Lens in January and a home match against Sporting CP. The victory over Porto gives Manchester City a solid start, putting them on track to secure the crucial 16 points before Christmas. At minimum, this victory eases the pressure on the team to harvest points from the campaign without Rodri.

Of course, the road ahead remains long and more victories are needed, but defeating Porto means Manchester City can approach the match against PSG with greater confidence and set clear targets to overcome the first hurdle of their Champions League group stage campaign.

Having this kind of momentum before Manchester City's first derby of the season is not a bad position either, and Maresca's excellent start at Manchester City continues.

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