South Korea progressed to the second round of the World Cup for only the second time in eight attempts after a 2-2 draw with Nigeria in their final Group B match here on Tuesday.
The result saw the Asian giants, who opened their campaign with a 2-0 win over Greece but then crashed 1-4 to Argentina, finish second in the group behind the South Americans, who beat Greece 2-0 to remain unbeaten. Nigeria, who had lost 1-0 to Argentina and 2-1 to Greece, were eliminated from the World Cup along with the Greeks.
South Korea will face Uruguay for a quarterfinal spot.
South Korea coach Huh Jung-Moo warned that his players would not content themselves with having achieved their primary World Cup goal of progressing to the second round.
“We have achieved our first objective of reaching the round of 16. After that, anybody can guess what our next pbjective might be, but I know that the players will immediately set a higher target. They will want to get to the semifinals,” he said.
South Korea’s advance into the second round is their second time in eight World Cup appearances, the last time coming at home in 2002. “It’s the first time we reached the second round at an away World Cup. I’m very proud and very happy,” Huh said, adding “I feel my players played to their full potential and were not intimidated.”
Park added: “It’s a first for us to qualify away from home and we’re very pleased to have done it here in South Africa. All the players know how tough it is to do, but I'm very proud of the players at having done so.”
In an end-to-end contest with chances aplenty, Nigeria opened the scoring through Kalu Uche (12) before South Korea scored either side of half-time through Lee Jung-Soo and Park Chu-Young before a Yakubu Ayegbeni penalty drew the sides level. — AFP