Maresca deflects tunnel fracas blame onto Porto bench after City's 2-0 win

Enzo Maresca pointed the finger at Porto’s technical staff after a fractious Champions League encounter at the Estádio do Dragão, with Manchester City emerging 2-0 winners despite a series of flashpoints that spilled into the tunnel at half-time.

Ruben Dias was seen appearing to push Porto head coach Francesco Farioli as the teams left the pitch at the break, and three City players were shown yellow cards across the ninety minutes. Tempers had flared after Porto felt Marc Guehi should have been sent off for an elbow on Gabri Veiga, though replays supported the referee’s decision to wave play on. Josko Gvardiol, loudly called for a second booking by the home bench, was substituted almost immediately after the restart.

Maresca said he had already gone down the tunnel before the altercations behind him and claimed he witnessed nothing. When pressed specifically on Dias’ conduct, he redirected attention to the behaviour of both dugouts throughout the match.

“You can ask what you want but how many times you see me or my bench or the guys that work with me stand up on the bench? Zero, for 95 minutes,” Maresca said. “How many times you see their bench? So…”

Porto manager Farioli, who was at the centre of the half-time incident, chose not to dwell on the officiating decisions in his post-match press conference, acknowledging that fine margins at this level can prove decisive while crediting his side’s overall performance.

“These things at this level could make the difference, but we know against who we played,” Farioli said. “We competed quite well in my opinion, and now we have to switch the focus for the league game that we’re going to play at the weekend.”

The result keeps City’s Champions League campaign on track, though the disciplinary fallout from the tunnel confrontation may yet attract further scrutiny from UEFA.