Maresca earns first Manchester City win in Seoul friendly

New Manchester City head coach Enzo Maresca thanked his players for their hard work on this hot Wednesday night in Seoul, as they awarded him his first victory with the Premier League club with a 3-1 preseason victory over a team of Korean league All-Stars.

Three different players had a goal apiece for Man City against Team K League at Seoul World Cup Stadium before about 28,000 fans, many of whom showed up in Man City blue despite sweltering conditions.

Maresca, who took over from Pep Guardiola in June, had absorbed a shootout loss to Inter Milan in Hong Kong in his debut last week and then got his first win out of the way here.

"For us, the result is always important even if it's a friendly game," Maresca said at a postmatch press conference. "But the most important thing is to see the effort of the players with this weather and also to see that compared to the last game, in some aspects we did something better."

At his prematch presser Tuesday, Maresca spoke about his desire to see daily improvements from his squad, as they gear up for the start of the new Premier League season later this month. And the Italian tactician said he was pleased with what he saw Wednesday.

"The good thing is that the things that we have been trying since Day 1, day by day, I can see that the players are making the effort to show that," Maresca said. "At the same time, it is very important that I can see that they trust the job that we are doing. For me, it is the main thing."

Maresca's counterpart, Chung Jung-yong, said he cherished the opportunity to coach against the talented team, even though Man City were missing some key players following the recent FIFA World Cup.

"We don't know if we will have another chance like this. Although we gave up some goals, at least we scored one in front of our fans," Chung said. "Man City players were in great form, and I think they are building up nicely for the new season. I heard my players say they learned so much from this match. Hopefully, it will be something that can help them going forward."

Yonhap