2023-06-04 20:58:02
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — South Korea’s dream lives on.
The Asian team beat Nigeria 1-0 on Sunday following extra time in the quarterfinal match played in Santiago del Estero and will rival Italy in one of the semifinals of the U20 World Cup in Argentina.
Defender Choi Seok-Hyun’s header from a corner kick in the fifth minute of extra time catapulted Eun-Jung Kim’s side into the top four round.
Against Italy, on Thursday in La Plata, the undefeated South Korea will seek to reach its second consecutive final in the category, following losing to Ukraine in the match for the title of the World Cup in Poland 2019.
Meanwhile, Nigeria – which eliminated the host Argentina in the round of 16 – stayed on the road in its intention to reach the final of a U20 World Cup for the third time in history – lost the 1989 and 2005). With their defeat, moreover, Africa no longer has representatives in the tournament.
Later in the day, also in Santiago del Estero, the United States and Uruguay will define the last semifinalist, for whom Israel is already waiting for the revelation, which in its first World Cup participation eliminated the prestigious Brazil in the quarterfinals.
The Madre de Ciudades stadium in Santiago del Estero was the scene of a match unwanted by Argentine fans. The Nigerians prevented Javier Mascherano’s team from coming face to face with the South Koreans on Wednesday, which in turn frustrated the desire of another South American team, Ecuador, in the round of 16.
And unlike what happened in the previous quarterfinal matches, South Korea and Nigeria not only did not take advantage of each other during the regulation 90, but they were bored as a result of a procedure that was uncomfortable for both.
It is clear that both South Koreans and Nigerians are often at their best when playing once morest each other. And they mutually knew how to neutralize that strength of the rival.
As a result of this, and of the lack of light from one and the other, there were practically no goal situations in regulation time and zero qualified the poor performance of both, beyond the fact that Nigeria had greater control of the ball.
Facing extra time, it remained to be seen which one would have more physical rest to face another 30 minutes at this point in a tournament that was already very demanding due to the little rest between games.
Choi’s goal shortly into extra time broke the game. From then on, South Korea bet on defending with the ball. Nigeria had two very clear ones to stretch the contest to the penalty shootout, but in both Umeh Emmanuel lacked aim.
The Argentine public in the stands, decidedly in favor of South Korea, ended up celebrating the passport of the Asians, as a way of settling accounts with the executioner of the host team.
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