No one thought that Japan and South Korea would perform so well in this World Cup in Qatar. Everyone thought that Japan and Korea would be eliminated from the group stage. But they qualified to fight in the second round. Now the Asian supporters are hoping that Japan and Korea can beat their opponents to reach the quarter-finals.
Remembering 1999, South Korea will enter the field today. And the Japanese are on par with the Croats in a head-to-head fight. Japan-Korea can only dream of taking Asian football to a new height. Who could have thought that Japan would be the group champion behind the two former world champions in the ‘E’ group?
Japan, who opened their World Cup campaign by defeating four-time champions Germany, also defeated 2010 champions Spain in their last match. Compared to Spain-Germany, today’s opponent Croatia is surprisingly far behind. But the fear is that, despite losing two champions, the Japanese lost to a ‘weak’ team like Costa Rica.
Heung-min Son’s hand to change history in front of South Korea. The history is Brazil’s record against Asian teams in the World Cup. The Brazilians have never lost against any Asian team. However, such an unbeaten record of Brazil was also against African teams.
South Korea have yet to figure out which formation will bring out the best in Son Heung-min. Another forward, Wolverhampton’s Hwang Hee-chan, is good one day and bad the next. Defences tend to crumble. Their experience of conceding 5 goals to Brazil and 3 goals to Japan is not too old.
The experience of Tottenham star Son Heung-min will come in handy. He has been consistently at Europe’s top level for a long time. Napoli’s Kim Min-ja is quite dominant in midfield. If he is fit, the coach will have more options, and Son will be able to play more freely.