‘4G draw escape → Final A hope’…but Lee Min-sung is bitter

Daejeon Hana Citizen head coach Lee Min-sung had some bitter words for his team despite their first win in five games.

Daejeon ended a four-match winless streak with a 3-1 victory over Suwon Samseong in the 31st round of the Hana OneQ K League 1 2023 at Daejeon World Cup Stadium on Wednesday, thanks to a goal from Kim In-gyun, a brace from Yoo Kang-hyun and a Thiago wedge.

In front of a crowd of 14,810 at the stadium, Daejeon got off to a great start, scoring two goals in the first half alone. In the 14th minute, after left back Seo 메이저토토사이트 Young-jae’s shot from inside the penalty box was saved by the goalkeeper, Kim In-gyun pounced on the second ball and slotted home his seventh goal of the league.

In the 34th minute, Yoo Kang-hyun extended the lead when he received a sharp pass from defender Cho Yoo-min, beat the goalkeeper and calmly scored his first goal of the season. It was Yoo’s first goal in 20 league games this season.

Daejeon goalkeeper Lee Chang-geun also made a stunning save to preserve his team’s victory. In the first half, Daejeon was threatened with a goal when Suwon won a penalty kick in stoppage time, but Lee Chang-geun read the direction of Ahn Byung-joon’s shot correctly to keep the game scoreless.

In the second half, Daejeon managed to pull a goal back in the 12th minute through Suwon’s key midfielder Kazuki, but a handball foul on Suwon defender Park Dae-won in stoppage time earned a penalty kick. Thiago, who replaced Yoo Kang-hyun in the second half, neatly converted the spot kick to seal the victory.

Thiago also scored his 14th league goal on the penalty kick, igniting the competition for the top scorer in the K League 1. With his goal against Suwon, Thiago is now tied with Lee In-gyu (Ulsan Hyundai) for the league lead with 14 goals.

With the 3-1 win over Suwon, Daejeon added three more points to their tally to move to 41 points (10W, 11D, 10L). While they are still in eighth place in the league, they still have a chance to qualify for the sixth round, as sixth-place Jeonbuk Hyundai, the final Final A team, has 43 points (12W7D11L). Suwon, on the other hand, failed to accumulate points and remained in 12th place in the league with 22 points (5W7D19L).

“I’m grateful to the players for winning a difficult game,” said Lee at the post-match press conference, “but conceding a goal at 2-0 is something we need to work on. It’s a bad mood, but it affects all 11 players,” he said.

“It’s something we need to work on if we want to be in a higher position,” he added, “but I’m very grateful for the three points in a bad situation. “We need to work on it to get to a higher position,” he said, adding that he was not satisfied with the victory and urged his players to improve.

On Yoo Kang-hyun, who scored his first goal of the season, he said, “One of the things we talked to him before he came on was, ‘Don’t worry about scoring, just do what you can do,'” adding, “Thiago is a target-type striker who can score from inside the box, and Yoo Kang-hyun’s strength is link-up play. I think today’s goal was a good opportunity for them to take the pressure off.”

Regarding Lee Chang-geun, who threw cold water on Suwon’s hopes by saving a penalty kick, Lee said, “I think it’s an important factor for us to take the pressure off. We’ve been conceding a lot of goals, so he deserves to be out of form, but he’s been focusing and making saves, and we’re getting one point out of a difficult game.”

On Cho Yoo-min, who returned from injury to assist on Yoo Kang-hyun’s goal and picked up his first assist of the season, he said, “I think we’ve improved 메이저사이트 in that area,” adding, “If there’s anything good for us, it’s that Kim Min-duk is better with Cho Yoo-min around. We want Anton to recover from his injury quickly and build a solid back three.”

“There were a lot of matches where we lost focus when we were winning and there were a lot of frequent misses, but today there were also mistakes, but I think the players tried to fix them and talk about them,” he said. “I think there are a lot of mistakes because the players have a lot of pressure to win, but in the pros, you can’t make mistakes, so I think they will get better in the future.”

Having tasted victory for the first time in five games, Daejeon will now travel to Gangwon FC for the 32nd round of the league on the 1st. It will be interesting to see if Daejeon and Lee can continue to hunt for three points against Gangwon after Suwon and take a step closer to their fans’ hopes of qualifying for the top split.