Hwang In-beom and Oh Hyeon-gyu scored second-half goals as South Korea rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic in the World Cup opener for both teams on Thursday in Zapopan, Mexico.
Oh’s tiebreaking goal in the 80th minute, off a centering pass from Hwang, gave South Korea three points in Group A. Mexico also has three points in Group A after beating South Africa 2-0 in the World Cup opener earlier Thursday.
Kim Seung-gyu had three saves for South Korea, two of them late in the match to preserve the victory.
Ladislav Krejci scored on a header in the 59th minute for Czech Republic, who were playing in their first World Cup match in 20 years. Matej Kovar made four saves for Czech Republic, who are level with South Africa at the bottom of the group with two games remaining for each team.
South Korea controlled the run of play in a scoreless first half with an 8-2 advantage in shots. Four of those shots were on target to no avail.
Krejci broke through before the midway point of the second half when he scored on a header from the edge of the 6-yard box off a long sideline throw-in from Vladimir Coufal.
South Korea finally found the back of the net in the 67th minute when Hwang chased down a long pass into the box from Lee Kang-in. Hwang stopped the ball’s momentum while forcing Kovar to commit, then chipped the ball into the right side of the goal to tie the score.
South Korea took a 2-1 lead 13 minutes later when Hwang sent in a centering pass from the right side of the box and Oh scored off Kovar’s right shoulder.
That came two minutes after the Czech Republic appeared to retake the lead on a Tomas Soucek free-kick header that was disallowed due to an offside call.
Kim made a diving stop off a shot from Adam Hlozek in the 82nd minute, and another on a dive in the fourth minute of stoppage time on a shot from Michal Sadilek.
–Field Level Media
