[데일리굿뉴스] Reporter Park Geon-do = Bentuho, who defeated Portugal 2:1, competes against Brazil, the world’s No. 1 player.
The Korean national football team, led by coach Paulo Bento, will play Brazil in the round of 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup at 4:00 am (Korea time) on the 6th at Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar.
Brazil is in first place in the FIFA world rankings and is the strongest team in the history of the World Cup, winning five times, the most ever.
At the World Cup in Qatar, Brazil is a recognized ‘strongest candidate for the title’.
Brazil, who did not win the World Cup in Korea and Japan in 2002, are dreaming of regaining the top spot this year for the first time in 20 years. In the group stage, they progressed to the round of 16 with 1st place in Group G (2 wins, 1 loss).
Korea, who finished second in Group H (1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss) in the group stage, had to overcome formidable opposition to write new history by advancing to the quarter-finals for the first time in World Cup away from home.
Korea, which is ranked 28th in the FIFA rankings, is inferior to Brazil with 1 win and 6 losses in A game.
Objectively, Korea is far behind Brazil.
Nevertheless, the players’ momentum is not far behind as they defeated Portugal, a strong player in Europe, 2-1 in the group stage.
This is bad news for Brazil, but there are some good things for Korea.
The point is that a series of injuries occurred in Brazil’s defence, creating a ‘hole’.
In Brazil, 5 people were injured during the group stage. Among them, striker Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain) and defender Danilo (Juventus) are expected to play in the Korean War.
However, striker Gabriel Jejus (Arsenal) and full-back Alex Tellis (Sevilla) will not be able to play the rest of the World Cup, and Alex Sandro (Juventus) will not be able to play in the round of 16 either.
The Brazilian side, where the left backs Tellis and Sandro left together, Bentojo needs to focus.
Korea has strength in flank attacks. In particular, the attack became sharper in the previous match against Portugal.
Thanks to Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who became the top scorer of the English Premier League (EPL) in the 2021-2022 season, recovering his skills little by little, and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), who is not pushed by strength and speed, recovers from injury.
Son Heung-min, who had suffered some discomfort while running wearing a face shield after surgery for an orbital fracture, showed a perfect pass following a dribbling development in the match against Portugal, and Hwang Hee-chan, who could not play the first and second games due to injury, substituted in the second half catching Son Heung-min’s pass.
If they keep digging into Brazil’s side, they can widen the gaps in the defense.
They will have to work to shake up the entire defence, which is inevitably open to change due to injuries to the full-backs, as well as the right side with Danilo, who has just recovered from injury, and the veteran but Dani Alves age. (UNAM).
It is also important to make good use of Lee Kang-in (Mallorca) and full-back Kim Jin-soo (Jeonbuk), who can deliver sharp crosses from the flank.
Lee Kang-in and Kim Jin-soo helped Cho Kyu-seong (Jeonbuk) score several goals with crosses from the left side in the second match against Ghana (2-3 loss).
