Manchester City Pre-Season Match in Seoul Under Maresca
Manchester City step out in Seoul with the sting of a penalty defeat still fresh and a new manager already demanding sharper edges.
Just days after losing to Inter in a shootout in Hong Kong, Enzo Maresca leads his side into their second pre-season outing, this time against the K-League All Stars at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The setting is different, the stakes still low, but the scrutiny on his ideas grows with every minute on the pitch.
City’s tour opened with a 1-1 draw against the Italian champions before a 3-1 defeat on penalties, a result that hurt the pride more than the plans. The performance, though, offered enough for Maresca to double down on his message: this is only the beginning, and his City “will get better and better” as the squad absorbs his demands.
One of the brightest sparks from Hong Kong will not feature here. Ryan McAidoo, whose fearless cameo against Inter turned heads and nudged a clear signal in the direction of director of football Hugo Viana about the teenager’s potential, has been ruled out with a minor shoulder problem picked up on that same night. It is a precaution, but a frustrating one, given the momentum he had created for himself.
Maresca, though, still has plenty to sift through. The K-League All Stars clash hands him another live audition for the fringe players and the maybes in his touring group, those whose futures at the Etihad Stadium remain delicately poised. Every run, every press, every decision under the Seoul floodlights becomes another entry in the manager’s notebook.
The squad remains incomplete. City continue to travel without their World Cup contingent from England, Norway, Spain and France, key figures who will only rejoin once the team returns to Manchester later this month. Their arrival will change the dynamic entirely, just in time for the Community Shield meeting with Arsenal, but this phase of the tour belongs to the understudies and the hopefuls.
For now, the focus is simple: minutes, structure, and a clearer sense of who can live inside Maresca’s system when the real games arrive.
At 12:00 BST (20:00 KST), the experiment moves to Seoul. The line-ups are in.
K-League All Stars
- Starting XI: Song Bum Keun; Kim Moon Hwan, Yazan, Eo Jeong Won, Lee Ki Hyeok; Kim Dae Won, Kim Bong Soo, Mateus, Park Tae Jun; Yago, Lee Dong Gyeong (C).
- Substitutes: Gu Seong Yun, Kwon Kyung Won, Kim Ryun Sung, Ahn Tae Hyun, Juan Ibiza, Ki Sung Yueng, Kim Ju Chan, Moon Min Seo, Son Jeong Beom, Ha Seung Woon, Galego, Mugosa, Lee Seung Woo.
Manchester City
- Starting XI: Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias (C), Gvardiol, Ait-Nouri; Lewis, Kovacic, Reijnders; Foden, Mubama, Semenyo.
No trophies are handed out in early August in Seoul. But for players chasing a place in Maresca’s first real XI, this kind of night can shape an entire season.
