West Ham United continued the hard work on the training pitch at their base in the Swiss town of Bad Ragaz on Wednesday morning.
After watching England’s thrilling penalty shootout win over Colombia together at the team hotel on Tuesday evening, the Hammers were back down to work less than 12 hours later.
Manuel Pellegrini put his squad through their paces at the Sportplatz Ri-Au home of Swiss 3. Liga club FC Bad Ragaz for a second time since the Hammers’ arrival on Monday evening, with the session kicking-off in bright sunshine in temperatures of around 27C (81F).
However, by the end of the 100-minute session, which featured pass-and-move drills and technical work to improve both fitness and agility, the rain which fell on Tuesday’s session had returned and the temperature had fallen markedly, much to the relief of the players.
As it had 24 hours previously, the session ended with an eleven-a-side match on a one-third size pitch. The game started with the players being allowed just one touch each, before going ‘all-in’ and then restricted to two touches each.
As they had done on Tuesday, the ‘non-bibs’ were the winning side.
In Pictures: West Ham get down to work in the Swiss sunshine
Aaron Cresswell opened the scoring with a spectacular free-kick before Dylan Tombides Award winner Conor Coventry doubled his team’s advantage with a smart finish.
At the other end, Adrian made two superb saves to deny Andy Carroll and a third to repel a fierce shot from Arthur Masuaku.
As was the case on Tuesday, Michail Antonio took part in the warm-up before breaking off to do individual rehabilitation fitness work as he continues his comeback from the hamstring injury he suffered in March.
Winston Reid was the only absentee from the session, but only because the defender had done his own individual rehab fitness work to recover his knee injury earlier on Wednesday morning.
The players enjoyed an afternoon of rest and recovery before starting two days of intensive work which will see them train three times on both Thursday and Friday ahead of their opening pre-season fixture with Challenge League club FC Winterthur on Sunday afternoon.
Manager Pellegrini will also test his players against Wycombe Wanderers, Preston North End, Aston Villa and Ipswich Town before kicking-off the 2018/19 Premier League campaign at Liverpool on Saturday 11 August.