Uruguay's defender Matias Vina fights for the ball with South Korea's forward Cho Gue-sung during the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between Uruguay and South Korea at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 24, 2022. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
South Korea and Uruguay played out a goalless draw in a game that saw a series of missed opportunities at the Education City Stadium, yesterday.
Both teams came close to scoring on multiple occasions, with Uruguay hitting the woodwork twice after South Korea had their heads held high in the opening half of their FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group H clash.
Despite being unable to convert their opportunities to goals, Uruguay coach Diego Alonso defended his attacking line-up, but admitted his team lacked a bit of precision to create more chances.
“Well obviously the characteristics of the starting XI were mostly attacking players,” said the coach, who went ahead with a front line consisted of veteran Luis Suarez, Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and Manchester United’s Facundo Pellistri.
“We had Darwin, Suarez and Pellistri, we also had three goalscoring midfielders and fullbacks that can push up. I like to defend higher but in the first half we struggled to do that. In the second half we were better. We lacked a bit of precision to create more chances, we lacked the passing combinations we usually have.”
“It was a tight game between two competitive nations. First 20 minutes was South Korea, we struggled, we couldn’t take the ball from them but we could adjust.
Second half we were better, we attacked a bit more, tried to be more competitive. I liked a lot of things the players did today,” Alonso said.
In front of a fired-up crowd of 41,663 yesterday, South Korea did well enough to hold the South American heavyweights, who started off as favourites against the Asian opponents in the ninth face-off between the two sides.
South Korea’s Hwang Ui-Jo who plays for Olympiacos, almost scored an opener in the 34th minute but missed from close range following a low cross from Moon-Hwan Kim while Hwang In-Beom and Hwang Ui-Jo both fired above the crossbar in separate attempts a while later.
Despite being held back for most part of the first half, Uruguay came close to scoring just before the break, when captain Diego Godin headed the ball off a corner from Valverde but only to see the ball bouncing off the left post.
Darwin Nunez missed another opportunity when his shot went wide in the 81st minute before Fede Valverde’s shot saw the ball hitting the post and bouncing away from the net again in the 90th minute.
Wearing a black mask to protect his facial fracture, Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min failed to inspire the Taegeuk Warriors, but almost broke the deadlock at the 90-minute mark. It was just before Hwang In-Beom missed another one to the left as both teams were denied full points despite hard work at the end of a thrilling clash.
“I feel OK, I’m not the only one to wear a mask, some players wear masks. I feel comfortable,” said the South Korean captain Son, who had underwent a surgery for a fractures above his left eye following a collision during Tottenham’s Champions League clash against Marseille on November 1.
“I’m just happy to be here, happy with the mask that I could play, it’s just so amazing.”
Bento said that the 30-year-old needed time to get back to his rhythm.
“We need to put it into context, Son is a player that up until his injury had continuous rhythm, good performances... but he had a serious injury. He was inactive for a considerable amount of time, he could only reintegrate into our team in the last few days. It’s natural that it will take him some time to readapt after the injury,” the Portuguese tactician said.
“Both sides probably are happy with the result. It was an end-to-end game, a really intense game, both sides had chances so I think 0-0 is a fair point,” Bento said while giving credit to his opponents.
“We fought and competed and probably also we could have got three points, but Uruguay also played amazing.”
South Korea next play Ghana in Group H and will later take on Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal who saw off Ghana 3-2 in their opening Group H match last night.
On the other hand, Uruguay play Portugal on Monday and will meet Ghana in their final group match on December 2.
“I’m more than happy with the performance of my players and I’m sure this group stage will be determined at the last match,” Alonso said.
Captain Godin said his team now needs to move on quickly ahead of the upcoming group matches.
“In a tournament like this there’s no time to have regrets, you have to think about the next match,” he said.
“We have to correct things, improve what we can, we need to grow and get better, we have the players to give quite a bit more.”
