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| South Korea's Son Heung-min, center, lifts Lee Seung-woo, second from right, celebrating Lee's goal against Iran during the men's football round of 16 match at the 18th Asian Games at Wibawa Mutkit Stadium in Chikarang, Indonesia, Thursday. Yonhap |
By John Duerden
South Korea moved into last eight of the 2018 Asian Games on Thursday with a 2-0 win over Iran in Indonesia.
Goals in each half, one from Hwang Ui-jo, the forward's fifth of the competition so far, and the other from Lee Seung-woo were enough for the young Taegeuk Warriors to overcome Iran in a hard-fought second-round clash.
The deadlock was broken with five minutes remaining in the first half. It was a well-worked goal. Hwang In-beom, one of Korea's best performers in the tournament, had the ball on the left side of the area, found a little space and pulled the ball across goal. There were still four Iranian defenders around the goal but the other Hwang was there to sidefoot home from close range.
Not long before, Korea breathed a sigh of relief after 18 minutes. A shot from Younes Delfi took a deflection before hitting the woodwork as Iran pushed forward. Both teams were pressing forward in search of the first goal and the game got a little bad tempered at times with a little pushing and shoving off the ball.
Almost ten minutes after the restart, Korea extended its lead thanks to Lee who had arrived in Southeast Asia from his Italian club Hellas Verona. The young forward dispossessed an opposition defender on the edge of the area, danced past two challenges and then sent a powerful shot, low and into the net.
The downside of the game from the Korean point of view was a second-half injury to goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo who had to go off to be replaced by Song Bum-keun. It remains to be seen how serious the injury is to one of Asia's top goalkeepers.
Both teams continued to have chances but the scoreline remain unchanged and there were plenty of tired legs on the pitch on a humid West Javan evening.
In the end however, it was a deserved win for the East Asian team who move a step closer to the gold medal, a prize that will also grant the roster exemption from military service. It was also a welcome and solid performance after the shocking loss to Malaysia in the group stage and the subsequent unconvincing win over Kyrgyzstan.
Korea moves onto an even tougher test on Monday, and a quarterfinal against Uzbekistan, the team that won the Asia U-23 Championship in January. Win that and the prize really will be within sight.
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