Maresca praises Manchester City after 3-0 win at Anfield in first outing since guilty verdict
Enzo Maresca praised Manchester City after they beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield on 11 October 2026 in their first outing since the club were found guilty on 114 charges. The win came amid ongoing controversy surrounding the club and was delivered in front of a vocally supportive traveling following.
City maintained a 100% start to the season with goals from Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki. The victory was described by observers as a comprehensive response to the off-field issues and threats facing the club.
“My message to the players since we were together three days ago, when they all came back from their national teams, has been quite clear: guys, the noise will always be there so it’s about how we learn to deal with the noise and it’s our duty to make our noise. Our noise is to win games in the way we did today and to be happy. It was our fans making the noise at the end of the game today,” Maresca said.
Maresca smiled when asked whether he needed City’s appeal to be heard as quickly as possible in order to celebrate the win. “You cannot imagine how happy I am,” he replied. “I don’t care. I’m here to try and prepare games and to win games. Hopefully I can speak about this situation when we win the appeal.” City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano was present at Anfield as the fallout from the club’s guilty verdict continues. Maresca added: “We were all together. For the importance of the game, Liverpool away, Anfield away, it was a good idea from the club to be all together. That togetherness is what we need.”
The match turned decisively on the 62nd-minute dismissal of Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch for a second bookable offence; Haaland opened the scoring one minute later and City then ran riot. The red card altered the balance of the game and preceded City’s second and third goals.
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola said: “We played two different games: one until the red card, and one from the red card until the end. I think we were the better team until the red card and they were better than us, obviously, after the red card. But I think the players deserve credit today because they’ve given everything.” Iraola also called the sending-off harsh, saying: “I think the first foul of Ryan is never a yellow card, never. The referee doesn’t even call the foul straight away. He lets it go, Elliot Anderson does a couple of steps and then decides to go down. I don’t know why he shows the yellow card after that because it’s not a situation where it leaves an advantage.”
The result was City’s sixth successive league win, a run that ensured Maresca equalled the best start to a managerial reign in Premier League history and kept Manchester City at the top of the table.
