By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- The Premier League giants Manchester City defeated a team of South Korean league All-Stars 3-1 in their preseason match in Seoul on Wednesday, putting on a show on a sweltering night before some 28,000 fans.

All four goals by Man City and Team K League came in the opening 45 minutes at half-empty Seoul World Cup Stadium, though those who braved the oppressive heat were treated to some delightful moments.

Man City did not bring a couple of big names who recently starred at the World Cup -- Rodri, who captained Spain to the tile and won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player, and Erling Haaland, who led Norway to the quarterfinals and scored seven goals to finish third in the Golden Boot race. Still, new Man City boss Enzo Maresca sent out a fairly strong starting lineup, with Portugal international Ruben Dias wearing the captain's armband for the likes of Mateo Kovacic, Phil Foden and Antoine Semenyo. Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma also got the starting nod.

Team K League's starting XI featured four members of the recent World Cup squad -- forward Lee Dong-gyeong serving as captain and joined by defenders Lee Gi-hyuk and Kim Moon-hwan and goalkeeper Song Bum-keun. Jordan international Yazan Al-Arab, who made his World Cup debut in June, started the match as well.

The teams played an entertaining and intense first half, with K Leaguers in midseason form and Man City stars, with their names written in Korean on their shirts, not messing around with the Community Shield on the horizon.

Rayan Ait-Nouri put Man City on the board in the ninth minute as the beneficiary of some great work by Tijjani Reijnders, who twisted and turned his way into the right side of the box and sent the ball toward the middle. With the K Leaguers unable to clear it out of harm's way, Ait-Nouri found the back of the net for the lead.

Team K League drew level just three minutes later against the run of play, with Kim Dae-won beating Gianluigi Donnarumma to the bottom left corner from the left edge of the box.

The goal seemed to fire up the K Leaguers for a short spell but then Man City punched right back with two quick goals.

In the 20th minute, Reijnders got in on the scoring act after receiving a deft back-heel pass from Antoine Semenyo. Then in the 23rd minute, Divin Mubama scored off a rebound following a hard shot from Semenyo.

With both teams making wholesale changes, the match took on a disorganized tone in the second half. And Team K League's new goalkeeper, Gu Sung-yun, shined the brightest.

In the 53rd minute, Gu turned aside Reijnders' free kick and then denied Phil Foden off the rebound. Gu quickly kicked the ball to the left wing to send Kim Joo-chan on a counterbreak, though the midfielder rattled the left goal post.

Jeremy Monga had a goal called back for Man City in the 74th minute after having the ball go off his hand before his shot.

Gu continued to stand tall in his goal, with a big stop on Omar Marmoush in the 84th minute and another on Monga two minutes later in what ended up being a losing cause.

The match kicked off the fifth edition of the Coupang Play Series, run by the namesake streaming service. The annual series has invited other European clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.

This is Man City's second appearance in the series. At 8 p.m. Sunday in Seoul, they will have a rematch of the 2023 Coupang Play Series match against the Spanish club Atletico Madrid.

jeeho@yna.co.kr

(END)

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