Son Heung-min: 'I spent the longest six minutes of my life'

The Korean match against Portugal 2-1 ended when the Uruguay - Ghana match just added the second minute of compensation for a total of 8 minutes. At that time, Uruguay was leading 2-0 and needed to score one more goal to occupy the second place of the Korean group, meaning a place to continue.

"It was the longest six minutes of my life," Son told Reuters of Uruguay's match timeout. ''But when the whole team gathered around to watch the Uruguay game, we all thought positively. I told my teammates that, if Uruguay scored one more goal, I would still be very proud of this team. I'm happy everyone fought to the end, let's see what happens. Everyone waited, but those six minutes were really long."

Korea entered the match with a mindset that they had to win against Portugal, and hoped that Uruguay would overtake Ghana with a not too big difference. By the 90th minute, the Asian representative still drew 1-1 with the opponent who had definitely won tickets to the 1/8 round. Determination in the rest of Korea paid off in the first minute of compensation. Son Heung-min led the ball from home to close to the Portuguese penalty area, poked a slot for Hwang Hee-chan to drop down and sink to the corner, setting the score 2-1.

Four years ago, Son also made a mark in the last minute of the group stage, when he scored to help Korea beat Germany 2-0. But that result was not enough for the Korean team to continue, when Mexico lost 0-3 to Sweden in the match at the same time.

"This time things are very different," added Son. "We also depend on the outcome of the other match, but the door to progress is not as narrow as it was four years ago. I don't even remember 2018, because I was so happy and proud when the game was over."

After Korea lost to Ghana and no longer had the right to self-determination in the second round, Son burst into tears on the Education City field. On December 2, he continued to shed tears, but this time they were tears of happiness. Both have four points and a difference of +0, but Korea is ranked above Uruguay - the team that won Ghana 2-0 at the same time - thanks to more goals (4 vs 3). Thanks to that, they followed the top of the Portuguese table to continue. In the 1/8 round, Korea will meet Brazil on December 5.