Three goals in 32 minutes should have been a surrender. Maresca refused to see it that way.

“I think we are there, my feeling is we are close,” the Italian told reporters after Wednesday’s defeat.

Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé scored inside two minutes of each other, in the 13th and 15th. Vitinha made it three on 32. Maghnes Akliouche added the fourth just after the hour. Erling Haaland’s two second-half goals, in the 53rd and 75th, dressed the final line but could not change what had happened before the break.

“It has been a bit of a strange game especially because we conceded two goals in two minutes and that created some problems for us,” Maresca said.

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City finished with 27 shots and hit the woodwork twice. The scoreboard still read 4-2.

‘Luis told me they were lucky’

Maresca’s defense of his players leaned on what he said he had been told by his opposite number at full time.

“Luis told me at the end they have been quite lucky,” Maresca said.

The compliment, if that is what it was, came from the manager whose team City could not keep out in the first half. Maresca did not disguise what PSG have become under the Spaniard.

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“I think in the last two years they have been the best team in Europe, they won almost all the games in this competition in the last two years,” he said.

That is the gap City now have to argue is smaller than it looks. On the pitch at the Etihad on Wednesday, the first 32 minutes made that argument harder.

A defeat with a bigger backdrop

The loss landed with City’s domestic situation still unsettled. An independent commission on 29 September found the club guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules over the 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons, with the panel upholding charges tied to inflated revenues and a failure to cooperate in good faith. City have said they are “disappointed and surprised” and have confirmed they will appeal. Sanctions have not yet been set.

Maresca inherited the job from Pep Guardiola on a three-year deal in June and has had a strong league start to 2026-27. The second-half response against PSG, two Haaland goals, 27 shots, two off the woodwork, is the evidence he will point to.

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“In the second half we did enough to deserve something more,” Maresca said.

City are next in Premier League action on Saturday.

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