Whatever he does in the rest of his career, Divin Mubama can always say he scored the first goal of Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City reign, the 21-year-old striker netting in the 14th minute against Inter Milan, before the English club lost on penalties following a 1-1 draw at Kai Tak Stadium on Saturday.
With all respect to Mubama, who was on loan at Stoke City last season, not many of the 42,826 crowd for this first match of the Hong Kong Football Festival were here to deliberate over his future direction.
No, this was the first chance to gain some insight into how Maresca will manage the devilish task of succeeding Pep Guardiola.
The former Chelsea boss’s powers of motivation were evident as he coaxed a more assured and assertive second-half performance from his players, following an untidy opening 45 minutes.
“Inter started training 10 days before us and they were probably more ready; in the second half we were better,” Maresca said.