SEOUL– With one match remaining in the second round of the Asian qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, South Korea have already locked down a spot for the next stage.
They sit atop Group H with 13 points from four wins and a draw. To close out the second round, they’ll face Lebanon at 3 p.m. Sunday at Goyang Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
It’s a meaningless match for South Korea, whose primary goal should be to make sure top players will avoid injuries. But head coach Paulo Bento said Saturday he doesn’t want his players to let up.
“Our goal is to compete with the same passion and dedication that we’ve shown so far,” Bento said in his prematch online press conference from the team’s camp at the National Football Center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
“We’ll try to get the victory by maintaining our style of play and playing quality football,” Bento added.
Eight group winners and four best runners-up were supposed to advance to the third round, but the formula has slightly changed. Qatar, automatically in the 2022 World Cup as the host country, participated in this round, which doubles as the second round of the 2023 Asian Cup qualification. Qatar won Group E but will not play in the third round of the World Cup qualification. This means seven group winners and top five runners-up will reach the third round instead.
Lebanon are in second place in Group H with 10 points, but regardless of Sunday’s result, South Korea will not finish lower than second in the group or lower than fifth among group runners-up.
South Korea have played in every World Cup since 1986.
In the two previous qualifiers, South Korea defeated Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka by the identical scores of 5-0. Those opponents were badly overmatched. But Lebanon, who must beat South Korea to have a shot at moving on to the next round, will bring more urgency and more skills to the table than the other two.
“From midfield to their forward group, they have a lot of highly-skilled players and difference makers,” Bento said. “These players have great one-on-one skills, and our defenders will have to play at a different tempo (than the two earlier games). It could be a much more difficult match for us.”
Lebanon held South Korea to a scoreless draw in their previous meeting in Beirut in November. Bento said the key for his side this time is to take control of the match early.
“It’s more important to execute our game plans than to worry about how the opposing team plays,” the coach said. “Throughout the second round, even when we didn’t play as well as we wanted to, we always tried not to deviate from our structure.”
South Korea have scored 20 goals and have not conceded any so far in the second round. They’re the only team in the second round not to have given up a goal, and Bento said he’d like to keep it that way through the end.
“I think we’ve done an excellent job defensively and we’ve not given up a lot of scoring chances,” Bento said. “If we are to keep our streak alive, we have to finish our scoring chances on offense, so that we don’t allow any counterattack opportunities to the other side. We have to apply pressure and stay active on defense. With the afternoon kickoff and hot weather, it’s going to be impossible to maintain heavy pressure for the full 90 minutes. We have to be smart about how we defend.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency