South Korea men’s football ‘cruise’ to third straight title with 2-0 win over China in quarter-final
The South Korean Under-24 men’s football team took another step towards a third consecutive Asian Games title with a 2-0 win over hosts China.
Hwang Sun-hong’s side defeated China 2-0 in their men’s football quarter-final match at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Huanglong Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China on Monday.
Hong Hyun-seok (Hent) scored a free-kick in the 18th minute and Song Min-kyu (Jeonbuk) added a second in the 35th minute to secure the two-goal victory.
The Koreans, who are going for their third consecutive Asian Games gold medal, have reached the quarter-finals of the men’s football competition at six consecutive Asian Games, dating back to Busan 2002.
Korea will face Uzbekistan in the semi-finals on 4 November at 9pm.
The men’s football quarter-finals will be played between Korea-Uzbekistan and Japan-Hong Kong.
Coach Hwang Sun-hong lined up Cho Young-wook (Gimcheon) up front, with Song Min-kyu, Ko Young-joon (Pohang) and Ahn Jae-joon (Bucheon) in attack.
In the midfield, Baek Seung-ho (Jeonbuk) and Hong Hyun-seong (Jeonbuk) started, while Park Kyu-hyun (Dresden), Lee Han-beom (Mitwillan), Park Jin-seop (Jeonbuk) and Hwang Jae-won (Daegu) started in defence. Lee Kwang-yeon (Gangwon) was the goalkeeper.
Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) started the game on the bench.
Korea never let up on the initiative and pushed the home team, China, throughout the match.
The 40,000 fans packed the stadium to support the Chinese, but their cheers were drowned out by the first two goals.
Korea opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a left-footed shot from Ko Young-joon, and in the seventh minute, Cho Young-wook’s header from a Hong Hyun-seok cross went just wide of the left side of the goal.
In the 15th minute, Go Young-jun, who was in front of the goal when the ball was cleared off the line by the opposition defence, was denied by Chinese goalkeeper Han Zhiqi.
The long-awaited first goal came in the 18th minute. Hwang Jae-won took a free kick from the right side of the opponent’s penalty area and Hong Hyun-seok stepped up to take it with his left foot.
The speed and direction were such that the opposing goalkeeper was unable to stop it.
After taking control of the game, Korea continued to put pressure on China.
Song Min-kyu, who warmed up with a mid-range shot in the 32nd minute, eventually scored a second goal in the 35th minute.
A grounded cross from Cho Young-wook down the right flank was unable to be cleared by the opposition goalkeeper and the onrushing Song Min-gyu slotted home.
China created their only real chance of the day in first-half stoppage time.
After intercepting the ball from our defence and going on the counter-attack, Tao Changlong’s cross was met by Dai Weizhun’s header that hit the post.
The second half saw little change in the Korean dominance.
Hwang Sun-hong took off Ko Young-joon, Ahn Jae-joon and Song Min-kyu in the 19th minute to bring on Lee Kang-in, Uhm Won-sang (Ulsan) and Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) in a bid to tune up for the quarter-final.
Lee Kang-in, who played about 30 minutes of second-half stoppage time, had a direct shot on goal from a free kick on the right diagonal of the penalty area in second-half stoppage time, but the ball ended up in the arms of the Chinese goalkeeper. 파워볼게임