SOUTH KOREA ADVANCED TO THE NEXT ROUND OF WORLD CUP 2022 WITH A 2-1 WIN OVER PORTUGAL

SOUTH KOREA ADVANCED TO THE NEXT ROUND OF WORLD CUP 2022 WITH A 2-1 WIN OVER PORTUGAL

By Rashmi Goel

After winning a thrilling 2-1 match against a lackluster Portuguese team at the Education City Stadium on Friday afternoon, South Korea will continue its World Cup dream. They last met in 2002 at the World Cup in South Korea/Japan. In that instance, the Taegeuk Warriors defeated Portugal 1-0 on home soil, condemning them to a group-stage exit while ultimately reaching the semi-finals. Despite the fact that both countries are now in the knockout stages of the tournament next week, there was also plenty of drama this time around. With this victory, South Korea has avoided elimination from the group stage for the third time in a row, and Uruguay and Ghana will also be eliminated from the tournament early.

It did not take Portugal long to leave South Korea with a huge mountain to climb after making six changes from the team that defeated Uruguay on Monday night. Especially since Portugal had never lost a game when they had scored the first goal at a World Cup! After just five minutes, Ricardo Horta, one of the six changes, broke the deadlock. Pepe's long ball found Diogo Dalot whose neat cutback was latched onto by Braga's forward for an easy score. In the following minutes, South Korea appeared to have found a way to get back into the tie when Jin-Su Kim's goal was disallowed for offside. The 27th minute marked the culmination of an extended period of South Korean dominance. Son Heung-Min's cross slid off Cristiano Ronaldo's back before bouncing into the path of Young Gwon-Kim for his seventh international goal.

The superstar's undeniable involvement this time around smacks of cruel irony after Ronaldo's "involvement" in Bruno Fernandes' opener against Uruguay this week. In the next phase, Ronaldo had a good opportunity to score his second goal of the game when Vitinha forced Seung-Gyu Kim to palm away his shot, but the former Manchester United star had little time to react and his header on the rebound was well wide of the goal. The forward's bad luck continued after the break when Cancelo's lifted ball fell to him in the box, but his follow-up shot was straight at the goalkeeper, resulting in the linesman's flag being raised. Despite passing a late fitness test, Ronaldo was brought off after 65 minutes. His quest to equal Eusebio's World Cup record of 9 goals will continue into the knockout round.

As Portuguese pressure increased as the second half progressed, but despite some excellent build-up play and a few half-chances, they were unable to score. An upset was on the way...South Korea broke on the counter after a Portugal corner, and Son was able to get on the ball with time to run at the defense. As soon as he completed the pass, Tottenham Hotspur's Erik Lamela slipped it through to Hee-Chan Hwang, whose effort swept into the far corner of the goal. The last four goals South Korea have scored at the World Cup have come after the 90th minute. In order to find out who they will face in the next round, South Korea and Portugal will now be watching tonight's matches between Serbia and Switzerland and Cameroon and Brazil in Group G.