The goal moved the Taegeuk Warriors into second place in Group H, narrowly ahead of Uruguay courtesy of their goals scored record, with the Sky Blues only managing a 2-0 win over Ghana.
Despite the defeat, Portugal top the group having already secured qualification to the knockouts with a 2-0 win over Uruguay on matchday 2.
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90+8' The referee blows for the end of today's match.
90+3' Substitution. Yu-Min Cho (South Korea) replaces Gue-Sung Cho.
90+2' The game is interrupted. Hee-Chan Hwang (South Korea) is given a yellow card. He has to be more careful now.
90+1' 2 - 1 Superb finishing from Hee-Chan Hwang (South Korea). Heung-Min Son plays a fantastic through ball and finds Hee-Chan Hwang (South Korea), who reacts quickly to get in front of the goal and fire a low shot from close range past the goalkeeper. It's 2:1.
81' That's the end of the game for Joao Mario, who is replaced by Bernardo Silva (Portugal).
81' Fernando Santos prepares a substitution. Vitinha is replaced by William Carvalho (Portugal).
81' The game has come to an end for Kang-In Lee. He has contributed as much as he could today. He will be replaced by the fresh legs of Ui-Jo Hwang (South Korea).
81' The substitution is prepared. Jun-Ho Son (South Korea) joins the action as a substitute, replacing Young-Gwon Kim.
66' It is time for a substitution. Hee-Chan Hwang (South Korea) is on for Jae-Sung Lee.
65' Fernando Santos decides to make a substitution. Ruben Neves will be replaced by Rafael Leao (Portugal).
65' Andre Silva (Portugal) joins the action as a substitute, replacing Cristiano Ronaldo.
62' Here's the change. Matheus Nunes leaves the pitch and Joao Palhinha (Portugal) comes on as a substitute.
46' Referee Facundo Tello blows his whistle to start the second half.
45+3' The match has reached half-time.
42' Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) blows a golden opportunity from inside the 6-yard box. He pounces on the rebound to head the ball just wide of the left post. The ball goes out of play and South Korea will have a goal kick.
42' Vitinha (Portugal) blows a good opportunity. He has a lot of space around him and fires a terrific shot from the edge of the box towards the middle of the goal, but the goalkeeper makes a brilliant save and stops this one!
36' Facundo Tello shows a yellow card to Kang-In Lee (South Korea) for a tough tackle.
35' Diogo Dalot (Portugal) gets into a good scoring position. He creates some space for himself and tries his luck from distance. His decent effort towards the bottom left corner is, however, superbly saved by Seung-Gyu Kim! The linesman points to the corner flag, Portugal are going to take it.
27' 1 - 1 Young-Gwon Kim (South Korea) collects the ball deep inside the box from a rebound following the corner kick. He beats the keeper with a sharp low shot in the middle! Quite a nice goal!
17' A goal, which was scored by Jin-Su Kim (South Korea), was disallowed due to offside.
5' 0 - 1 Goal! Diogo Dalot passes the ball to the feet of Ricardo Horta (Portugal), who has an empty net in front of him and has no problems in tapping the ball in. 0:1.
1' The first half has just begun.
South Korea starting XI: Kim Seung-gyu, Kim Moon-hwan, Kwon Kyung-won, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Jin-su, Lee Jae-sung, Lee Kang-in, Jeong Woo-yeong, Hwang In-beom, Son Heung-min, Cho Gue-sung.
Portugal starting XI: Diogo Costa, Diogo Dalot, Pepe, Antonio Silva, Joao Cancelo, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Neves, Vitinha, Joao Mario, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Horta
Preview
South Korea found themselves on the wrong end of one of the most entertaining games of the tournament so far as they lost 3-2 to Ghana to take qualification out of their own hands.
The Koreans impressively closed a 2-0 deficit with a quickfire brace from Gue-Sung Cho, but Mohamed Kudus’ eventual winner for Ghana means that South Korea must now defeat the already-qualified Portugal whilst hoping for a favour from Uruguay.
Enraged after the final whistle, South Korea boss Paulo Bento saw red as he remonstrated with the referee. Lisbon-born Bento was part of a Portugal team that South Korea eliminated with a 1-0 win in the 2002 tournament, but his angry protests mean that he’ll be absent from the touchline in what is arguably the biggest game of his managerial career against his homeland.
There will be one Portuguese manager on the touchline though, Portugal boss Fernando Santos! Now the national manager for eight years, Santos faced a selection headache in the buildup to their comfortable 2-0 win over Uruguay with defender Danilo Pereira picking up an injury, yet 39-year-old veteran Pepé stepped in and put in a brilliant performance to help his nation to a clean sheet in just his second full 90’ since the beginning of October.
Having already secured passage to the knockout phase for the fourth time across the last five tournaments, Portugal need just a point here to guarantee top spot in Group H. History points to a strong showing from them in this final group game as they are currently unbeaten in their last four such contests (W2, D2), although that run began after losing 1-0 to South Korea when suffering an early elimination in 2002!
Players to watch: Gue-Sung Cho announced himself last time out with his first goals at the World Cup finals, meaning the Jeonbuk Motors man has now scored eight goals across his last seven appearances for club and country. Trying to outdo him will be Bruno Fernandes, who’s now had a hand in four of Portugal’s five tournament goals (G2, A2) after being rightfully awarded his first goal of the tournament after some initial confusion with teammate Ronaldo celebrating as if he’d scored, before he grabbed another late in the game.
Hot stat: South Korea possess a meagre 22% win-rate against UEFA nations at the World Cup finals (W5, D6, L12).
World Cup trivia: Portugal didn’t play out a single stalemate across their first 16 World Cup tournament games starting in 1966 and ending in the 2006 edition (W11, L5), and that remains a competition record of straight games without a draw to this very day!
