Man City defender Aymeric Laporte has told his teammates that they must continue to 'improve' following the friendly defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
City were brilliant in the first half in the Premier League Asia Trophy final, with Kevin De Bruyne returning to his best, but just couldn't break the deadlock.
Raheem Sterling himself should have had a hattrick but was denied on several occasions by some brilliant goalkeeping from Rui Patricio and then absolutely skied his penalty over the bar.
In the second-half multiple substitutions and the tiring Chinese humidity disrupted the rhythm of the game and neither side made many chances, with it finishing goalless and going straight to penalties.
City's look from the spot didn't improve in the shoot-out and misses from Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva and Lukas Nmecha saw the Blues lose 3-2.
It wasn't a particularly hard defeat to take with it being a pre-season friendly, but Laporte has called for his teammates to keep working hard.
"I think it's pre-season we have to keep working to be ready for the season in the final two [friendlies] and that's most important," the Frenchman said.
"We make a good jump but the result wasn't good, so we have to improve.
"Football is sometimes like today and we have to improve for next time. I don't know, the goalkeeper did a good job.
"I think, the first-half it was good we were better than them but we didn't score and the most important is to score. We missed a penalty obviously it could be better for us but it's okay.
"It's pre-season we have to improve and keep working."
