Photo: The White House / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
Manchester City beat K-League All Stars 3-0 in Seoul on Wednesday, with Enzo Maresca highlighting his players' work rate in temperatures of around 36 degrees Celsius at kick-off.
Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Divin Mubama all scored in the first half to give City a comfortable pre-season victory. The result was Maresca's first win of the Asia tour, following a 1-1 draw with Inter Milan the previous Saturday.
"For us the result is always important, even if it is a friendly game — but the most important thing is to see the effort of the players, especially in this weather," Maresca said at his post-match press conference.
"The good thing is the players tried to adapt [to the weather]. They made an effort for 95 minutes."
Maresca also noted improvement from the Inter draw, adding: "Compared to the last game in some aspects we did some things better."
The City manager acknowledged his squad is not yet at full strength, with several players still absent after deep runs at this summer's World Cup. Those who reached at least the quarter-finals are expected to return to Manchester next week, days before the Community Shield.
"Around eight or nine players are still not here with us," Maresca said. "But the important thing is when they are here they make the effort to do the things we have been trying to do since day one."
City's next pre-season fixture is against Atletico Madrid on Sunday, 9 August.