But the squad will also be keen to continue working on areas which can be improved as the season goes on.
Mahamadou Sangare’s powerful header gave City an early lead in our second League Phase fixture of 2025/26.
A Melvin Gomes own goal and Ryan McAidoo solo strike were sandwiched between Sangare completing his hat-trick to see our young boys in blue maintain a 100% record on the European stage.
However, goals for Mahel Haddani and Ekene Chukwuani show that City still have work to do.
MATCH REPORT | mONACO 3-5 CITY
And Wilkinson is confident his team will continue to develop throughout the campaign, and in turn, become a team that can challenge any European opponent.
“I thought we started well, started on the front foot, got an early goal. And I thought mentality-wise we were in a really good place,” Wilkinson analysed.
“We conceded a disappointing goal in terms of higher up we lost a duel, and then fair play to them, their technical quality on the transition was really high.
“They’re the moments you want to try stuff out when you play this level. And again in the second half the goals we conceded were a bit disappointing. I thought for the large majority of the game we were good, and winning games away from home in Europe is hard.
“You come to Monaco and think of the Academy and the players they have produced in the last 10, 20 years, is top. And you know there is good players on the pitch today so they are going to hurt you at times.
“[There were] Lots of positives, and if we can tighten up on a few of the areas we want to I think we’ve got a really exciting team.”
Watch Wilkinson’s post-match interview via the video above…
