Brazil - Korea: History difficult to reverse?
*Brazil - Korea: 2:00pm on Tuesday, December 6, on VnExpress.
Neymar's absence is considered part of the reason why Brazil did not play up to expectations in the group stage. After the opening match against Serbia 2-0, which Neymar kicked for 80 minutes, the army under Tite struggled to overcome Switzerland 1-0 and then lost to Cameroon 0-1 in the last round. Although Brazil passed the group stage, it was clear that Brazil did not feel glorious, having broken the 17-match unbeaten circuit in the group stage and lost to the African representative for the first time at the World Cup.
Brazil's all-star attack also only scored three goals in the first three matches in Qatar. In particular, in the last two matches without Neymar, they only scored one goal. This is the second-worst score among the teams reaching the last 16, behind only the US and Poland - who have both scored twice, and Brazil's own worst record since scoring three goals in the group stage in 1974. .
Brazil's conversion rate also matters, as they scored three goals from 51 shots in the group stage. This stat is behind today's opponent - South Korea with four goals from 35 shots, and far behind the leading team in the same statistics - Spain with nine goals from 36 shots.
After more than 10 days of rest, Neymar returned, completing a full training session with the whole team yesterday 4/12. At the pre-match press conference, despite being cautious, coach Tite also confirmed that the 30-year-old striker had recovered and was ready for battle.
Besides Neymar, the pillars were given a break in the last match of the group stage against Cameroon when the team that was sure of the next stage was also ready to return to Korea. Brazil also has a mental advantage when crushing its East Asian opponent 5-1 in a friendly match in June.
However, after witnessing so many surprises from the beginning of the tournament, coach Tite expressed caution. He said: "This is the round that brings together the strongest teams, so the previous results don't say much when entering the official tournament."
Meanwhile, Korea is on the upswing after defeating Portugal 2-1 in the last round of the group stage, and slipped through the narrow door into the 1/8 round. The Asian representative also welcomed the return of central defender Kim Min-jae and coach Paulo Bento - who were absent before Portugal due to injury and penalty cards.
Besides Son Heung-min, defender Kim Jin-su is leaving his mark on Qatar. The 30-year-old often cooperates with the Korean captain on the left wing and then passes into the opponent's box. Possessing 14 crosses leading to dangerous situations, only three other players at the World Cup did better than Jin-su in that respect. Korea often applies a header in the group stage when it owns striker Cho Gue-sung with a height of 1.89 m. Therefore, Brazil needs to be wary of the high ball from the left wing of Korea with the trigger being the defender wearing the number 3 shirt. From a similar attack in the match against Ghana, the Asian representative had an equalizer 2. -2.
Those are the basis for Hwang Hee-chan - the owner of the decisive table to help Korea defeat Portugal - to set the goal of defeating Brazil today. "We will not be satisfied to get to this round," the 26-year-old striker said. "At the moment, the whole team is focused on overcoming Brazil and giving the victory to the fans."
However, to do that, Hee-chan and Korea will have to reverse history. In the last four encounters with South Korea, Brazil has won and scored at least two goals per game. Korea has also never won any representative from South America in the World Cup. Brazil's 90-minute win rate today is rated by the supercomputer as 76.2%, while South Korea's is 8.2%.
