focused

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca claims players unfazed by financial breaches verdict ahead of Liverpool showdown.

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has brushed off the guilty verdict hanging over the club and says he and the players are fully focused on football matters.

City could face a severe points penalty and even expulsion from the Premier League after an independent commission found they used “sham” commercial contracts to inflate revenue and cut costs by over 900 million pounds ($1.2bn) between 2009 and 2018.

City, who top the league with five wins in five games, return to action for the first time since the guilty verdict was revealed when they travel to Liverpool on Sunday.

The eight-time Premier League winners, who have appealed the decision, then play their first game in front of their own fans since the verdict, when they entertain back-to-back Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

“I am very calm, the club has been quite calm. We trust completely the club,” Maresca told City’s in-house media on Thursday.

“We understand the noise, but the focus for us is what we control and we control the football side.

“The feeling is fantastic, to be honest.”

Maresca, who was assistant to former manager Pep Guardiola during the 2022-2023 season, addressed the players for the first time since the verdict when they returned to training on Thursday following the international break.

When asked about the reaction of the squad – many of whom have been linked with a move away from City if the club’s appeal fails – Maresca said they were “excited” given their start to the season.

“The players are excited for the next two games, but especially they are excited because in this moment, we are top of the league, so the players they are just focused ‌‌on that,” he said.

“They know that what we can control is the football side. They are not worried at all about different things. They know they are professionals.

“They know that the noise is there, but they don’t care too much about the noise.

“They are just focused on this moment, how we can beat Liverpool, how we can, together with the fans, try to win at Anfield.”

As part of City’s appeal against the decision they have continued to maintain their innocence, saying the independent commission’s opinion contains “clear material errors” and that they possess evidence supporting their position.

The commission also found the ⁠⁠club guilty of charges relating to their failure to cooperate with the investigation.

Premier League holders Arsenal begin the weekend’s action in the top flight on Saturday when they entertain Leeds United with the chance to move level on points with City, who would then hold Sunday’s game in hand.

The ultimate aim for O’Neill is to lead his young squad to a first major tournament since 2016 when the next Euros roll around in 2028.

Their return to the second tier in the Nations League has been successful so far, with Charles scoring a 99th-minute winner in Georgia before the team showed their character with a goalless draw at home to Hungary.

The players definitely looked tired in the closing stages of the draw, which can be put down to the 5000-mile return trip to Tbilisi, but they held their own against Dominik Szoboszlai’s side.

Before that, Northern Ireland had kept Paris Saint-Germain winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia quiet in the opener.

While Ukraine do not have the individual star power of the other teams in League B2, O’Neill knows they are still a dangerous side.

He described them as favourites on Friday night, and pointed to the fact that manager Andrea Maldera had made 10 changes between their opening 1-0 win in Hungary and the goalless draw with Georgia in their second game.

“Ukraine’s strength is in their collective as a team, rather than what we faced against Georgia with Kvaratskhelia and Hungary with Szoboszlai, who are top European players.

“I think that Ukraine have many players that have potential to be on that level and go to the big, big clubs in Europe.

“We haven’t highlighted any one individual, but we’ve looked very closely at how they play, with the ball and without the ball, and I believe their strength is in the collective of the team.”