{"id":27499,"date":"2022-12-03T14:01:15","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T05:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=27499"},"modified":"2022-12-03T14:01:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T05:01:51","slug":"hee-chan-the-hero-as-south-korea-seal-last-16-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2022\/12\/03\/hee-chan-the-hero-as-south-korea-seal-last-16-berth\/","title":{"rendered":"Hee-chan the Hero as South Korea Seal Last 16 Berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2022 FIFA World Cup brought up more twists and turns on Friday night as Groups G and H played their final matches. In Group H, already-qualified Portugal suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of South Korea thanks to a last-minute goal from Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang Hee-chan, a result that sent the\u00a0Taeguk Warriors\u00a0<\/em>into the knockouts as Uruguay could only muster a 2-0 win over Ghana, a result that eliminated Luis Suarez and co.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Portugal already sealing a ticket to the round of 16, Group H’s other knockout spot was contested in a three-way race between South Korea, Uruguay, and Ghana.<\/p>\n

South Korea knew that only a win and a favorable result in the Uruguay-Ghana match would qualify them into the knockouts alongside Portugal, but things didn’t go according to plan for Paulo Bento’s men as Ricardo Horta swept a Diogo Dalot ball into Kim Seung-gyu’s goal in the fifth minute, giving Portugal the lead with their first real chance of the game.<\/p>\n

After a Kim Jin-su effort was ruled out for offside, South Korea drew themselves level in the 27th minute. A South Korean corner saw the ball striking Cristiano Ronaldo on the back, rolling onto the path of Kim Young-gwon as a result. The Ulsan Hyundai man made no mistake with his finishing, easily beating Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa from close range.<\/p>\n

At this point, Uruguay had gone 1-0 up in their grudge match against Ghana thanks to Giorgo de Arrascaeta, with Andre Ayew having missed a penalty for the Black Stars earlier. The\u00a0La Celeste\u00a0<\/em>then went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute after Luis Suarez – public enemy of the Ghanaians for his handball and antics against them in the 2010 World Cup – fed De Arrascaeta the ball, with the Flamengo attacking midfielder managing to beat Lawrence Ati-Zigi for the second time with his shot.<\/p>\n

With Uruguay winning and South Korea drawing, it seems that the South Americans were set to be the ones accompanying Portugal into the knockouts.<\/p>\n

Both Portugal and South Korea exchanged chances after chances, the former determined to finish their group campaign with a win while the latter are desperate for something that would get them out of the group alongside the Portuguese. Vitinha and Horta came close for\u00a0A Selecao<\/em>, while the\u00a0Taeguk Warriors\u00a0<\/em>had Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min as their main attacking focal point, with the striker seeing his two shots being blocked.<\/p>\n

With Uruguay unable to find their way past a resolute Ghana defense for that one clinching goal to kill off the contest for sure, South Korea finally found their breakthrough in the first minute of stoppage time.<\/p>\n

A South Korean clearance led to Son spearheading another\u00a0Taeguk Warriors\u00a0<\/em>attack, but instead of going direct, he passed the ball towards Hee-chan, who finished things off coolly to complete the comeback and seal South Korea’s victory.<\/p>\n

With South Korea now having a better goal-scoring record compared to Uruguay, it seems that qualification was assured for Bento’s charges. However, they had to wait eight agonizing minutes as Uruguay still chased for that elusive third goal in their match against Ghana, a goal that would leapfrog\u00a0La Celeste <\/em>above the Taeguk Warriors<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, a last-gasp free-kick from Nicolas de la Cruz was saved by Ati-Zigi, confirming South Korea’s place in the knockouts and dragging Uruguay down alongside Ghana into the pits of elimination – revenge for 2010 somewhat being paid.<\/p>\n

South Korea will now face Group G winners Brazil in the round of 16, while Switzerland awaits Portugal in the knockouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2022 FIFA World Cup brought up more twists and turns on Friday night as Groups G and H played their final matches. In Group H, already-qualified Portugal suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of South Korea thanks to a last-minute goal from Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Hwang Hee-chan, a result that sent the\u00a0Taeguk Warriors\u00a0into the knockouts as Uruguay could only muster a 2-0 win over Ghana, a result that eliminated Luis Suarez and co. With Portugal already sealing a ticket to the round of 16, Group H’s other knockout spot was contested in a three-way race between South Korea, Uruguay, and Ghana. South Korea knew that only a … Continue reading “Hee-chan the Hero as South Korea Seal Last 16 Berth”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":27504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,50],"tags":[906,1145,2692,1316,186,95,70,1350,332],"class_list":["post-27499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-fifa-world-cup","tag-2022-fifa-world-cup","tag-2022-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-ghana","tag-portugal","tag-slider","tag-south-korea","tag-uruguay","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27500,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27499\/revisions\/27500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}