South Korea had ended their miserable World Cup campaign in fourth place in their group, after losing yet again to another match, now against the Belgians.
Belgium, on the other hand, has perfected their winning streak for the group stage, after defeating Algeria, Russia, and Korea Republic with late but deadly goals.
However, a Korean qualification to the Round of 16 is also quite impropable. To meet the requirements, South Korea should have won by three or more goals. With Belgium as their opponent, that also seemed impossble.
On the other hand, Belgium team coach Marc Wilmots did not even looked quite worried throughout the game because of his 10-man crew. Also, he opted to put some of his star players, Eden hazard, Kevin de Bruyne, and Axel Witsel at rest at the benches.
Of course, the Les Diables Rogues performance was quite lacking in stellar, but it did manage to scare off the Koreans. In the first half, Belgiam Dries Martens tried to goal, but the ball ended up rougly eight yards from the net.
Martens tried his luck again, but fails to deliver a score after the ball bounces 25 yards off. Koren Kim Seungyu seized the chance and did a save. The South Koreans were poor in attack, nevertheless.
"I knew that the Koreans would leave us with a lot of space to play with. My young team had a tendency to push forwards too much at times, so I tried to get them to relax a little," said Belgium's Wilmots.
Belgium looked fierce even with 10 mean, as their counter-attack would have showed. By the 78th minute, finally, someone from the two groups broke the conspiracy of a goalless draw. Jan Vertonghen has scored.
"Finishing top of the group and pulling off a late win with ten men is also a real source of satisfaction," said Vertonghen.
